Sun Rises Like Rain
by DarkLux
Summary: When Dumbledore is out of ideas of how else to keep Harry Potter safe, he searches far and wide to broaden and ensure his protection. Set on HP 5th book. Minato/kakashi pairing.
1. The Lonely Track

So me again, with yet another rewrite and translation of one of my own stories. Which is much faster to do than writing a brand new chapter for A Different Life (WHICH I AM DOING!) So, well, yes, this is old Team Minato, minus Obito, sadly, going to Hogwarts...

Ugh, it's two in the morning, just go and enjoy it.

* * *

The Lonely Track

"_People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges"  
_**Joseph F. Newton**

For what seemed the thousandth time that night, a sigh was heard throughout the office. With barely a shift in his posture, the old man got rid of the paper he was reading. He really wasn't ready to sign a war commitment with yet another country. He pushed some smoke out if his pipe, briefly wondering why they sent war agreements between themselves anyway, as if it would be too rude to just arrive without warning, despite it being, ironically enough, a war.

The old man tensed slightly as he felt a rather powerful rush of chakra, and he felt the guards behind him do the same, tightening their muscles and preparing their weapons for attack.

There was a loud smacking sound, and suddenly there was another old man in the room, long midnight-blue robes descending from his frame and spilling on the floor around his feet. This time, the male with the pipe got up from his chair, impassive face never betraying his emotions as he signaled for the young guards to remain calm.

Studying the long white beard and the pointed hat that the seemingly older man sported, the other frowned. The blue eyes behind those half-moon spectacles clearly waited for something.

"Who are you?" were the first words that came out the mouth of the man with the white and red hat. "How did you get past my ANBU?"

The older man actually _brightened_, the rest of the occupants of the room noticed. The Hokage had pretty much threatened him, and a happy smile had _actually_ formed on his lips.

The blue-eyed male cleared his throat, giving a simple step closer to the desk the village leader had been sitting behind.

"Greetings, Lord Hokage." The stranger said, the slightest bit of an accent that was not from the hidden villages present. The alluded tightened his lips. From the Outside, then? "My name is Albus Dumbledore, and I come here with a request."

Going from the older man's twinkling eyes to the document next to his dark-skinned hand, the Hokage sighed once again, and motioned for the confused ANBU to relax slightly. At least this was not a matter of the upcoming war.

Instead, the Hokage grabbed his pipe with his left hand and left it on top of his desk, blowing one final cloud of grey smoke from his mouth.

"And what would this request be?" He asked, professionalism slipping into his voice as he sat back down on his chair.

The oldest male stepped forward; arms folded close to his chest, but slowly extended them in front of him.

The old Hokage heard every word that came out of Dumbledore's mouth, quiet through the whole tale except to interrupt when he had questions about the odd reality from the part off the Outside the wizard came from, which was always replied with a seemingly playful 'Where I am from, it is shinobi who are a fairytale', which of course led to questions about the man's knowledge of the Konoha village.

But Sarutobi understood. Mostly. Some kid was in danger, and he needed protection, along with the whole school he was attending. He thought about it for a few minutes, in which the older male's twinkling eyes were made painfully obvious, and couldn't help a smirk coming forming on his face. This Potter boy needed bodyguards, but the danger seemed in no way immediate, and his shinobi could also use some protection from the war. He could deal with this.

"Very well, I'll give you three of my shinobi to protect your school. They are among the best of the village." The Hokage agreed, then turned to the masked men behind him. "Toad. Go get Wolf and Shrike, you three will be leaving tonight," He eyed the old wizard, who nodded in correspondence. "Tell them to pack for a little more than a year."

The masked man paused, blond hair barely shining in the dim light of the office. "Shrike, sir?"

The white-and-red clad man nodded, turning to meet the expressionless eyes of the porcelain mask. "Ah, yes, she is newly appointed, but you know who she is." A pointed look was sent in the blond's direction, and the man immediately nodded, and almost unnoticeably jumped out the window.

The ANBU first stopped in a small apartment, but did not enter. Instead, he stood outside, banging his knuckles against the window to wake up the occupant of the home.

It was a few minutes of patiently waiting on the windowsill before a young girl came into view, brown haired disheveled and violet eyes blearily looking for the source of the racket. Her sight finally fell on the masked man, and she ran towards the window to open it, allowing the blond in.

"Minato-sensei?" She asked, stifling a yawn. "What are you doing here?" Her eyes traveled to the clock, which marked an hour on the morning she had never be awake to see in her life.

"Hokage-sama requested us for a mission. It's guard duty, and you need to pack for a year, since it's really far away. Oh, and use your ANBU uniform," The man replied, grinning at his student's baffled face as he ruffled her hair even more. "Meet me at my house, yeah, Rin-chan? I need to wake Kakashi up, and he's been running a fever since he returned from his last mission."

The girl nodded, though still obviously a little confused, and she gave the man a wave with the hand before both retired to their own directions.

After that, the blond went into his own home, taking off his sandals and mask, and leaving them carefully on the floor. He walked as quietly as he could while stretching his arms, which were stiff and sore from all the time he had spent unmoving in the Hokage's office.

He opened the door to his room, the wood barely creaking. Once in there, he grabbed his usual backpack before rummaging around his room for another one, remembering he needed to pack for a whole year. A pang of sorrow attacked his chest once he found it, and he held it in his hands before sighing, moving on to go through his clothes and picking up other utilities he would need. As he packed the last of his kunai, he looked out the window, knowing the memorial stone to be somewhere beyond it. He would need to take the kids. Say one final good-bye to Obito before they had to leave for such a long time.

Frowning slightly at the thought, the blond man placed his bags on the floor of the hallway outside his room and opened the door right in front of the one leading to his bedroom. He then considered waking up the small person resting on the bed, but decided against it. Kakashi _was_ ill, and though he was sure the boy could pretend in front of that strange old man, he wasn't about to allow him to pack on his own when he needed rest.

Thankfully, Kakashi's largest duffle bag was in plain sight, still somewhat filled with things he had used on his last mission. Minato arranged the clothes that were already inside and threw in a couple more things, along with all the weapons he could find in the room. He wasn't actually sure of how many kunai, shuriken and senbon the boy owned, but the blond assumed he had most of the boy's equipment, judging by the sheer number of pointy-ended iron tools he had packed, was now safely in the duffle bag.

He picked the bag and threw it over to where his own were, aware that there was nothing particularly delicate in there that wasn't being protected by the large amount of clothes. Having finished that, the man picked the one thing that was crumpled in a mess next to the young teenager's bed, making sure it was in condition before laying it over the desk next to the window.

Minato walked over to the bed once more, sitting next to the slumbering silver-haired youth. Gently, he shook the boy's shoulder. He noticed the heated skin, but forced himself not to wipe his hand of the salty moisture that had wet his palm.

"Hey, Kashi-chan. Wake up." He whispered when the slight shaking didn't work. Exhausted dark eyes opened slowly, blinking up at the blond.

"Minato?" Asked the boy, though his body didn't move an inch. In that moment, the blond blistered at the Hokage's choice on shinobi for this mission. Rin, he could understand, it had been long since she was last on a mission like the one they had been given. But Kakashi had just returned from a month-long assignment, and had been chakra depleted and sick since then.

He looked at the still-healing scar over the youth's left eye, and had to control his mouth from twitching in despair. He removed his hand from the boy's shoulder, leaving the other one on top of the pale arm, to caress the gray hair away from Kakashi's face.

"Yeah," He replied, bending over slightly so he could grab the younger male in an awkward hug to pull him to a sitting position. "We have a mission. ANBU gear required." The blond paused, looking at the teen's disoriented expression. "It's a yearlong. I already packed for you".

There was a pause. "Now?"

The man wanted to say no, because his former student looked so utterly worn-out, face shining with cold sweat and black irises that clearly had fogged with exhaustion. Even his reaction time was out of the place, which was very, _very_ rare for the boy.

He nodded, though, because that was his job, and got up from the bed as he pulled the short thirteen-year-old with him. He handed Kakashi his black clothes just as the doorbell rang.

"Dress, okay? We're going to the memorial stone before we leave." He ruffled the teen's hair, his blue eyes becoming a tad worried when the younger male didn't react to the contact as he usually did.

But he got up, trusting the youth to dress himself as he half walked-half ran to attend the call, barely remembering to pick up his and Kakashi's bags and bring them to the living room before opening the door to find his female student there, ANBU uniform in place save for the bird-mask that hung from one of her two white bags with the aid of a red string.

He nodded and stepped aside, allowing the teenage girl to come into the house. She looked much more refreshed, her hair combed and eyes free of much of the sleepiness they had been plagued with earlier. She smiled at him; a sad smiled reserved for when they were alone and could mourn Obito's death and worry about Kakashi's overly-obsessed mission taking.

The girl allowed her lightest looking bag on the table, the heavier one remaining securely strapped to her back.

"Hey, sensei, do you know what the mission's about?"

"I do, actually." The blond replied, motioning for Rin to take a seat in one of the sofas as he sat on the floor near the doorway, putting on his sandals once more. "But let's wait 'till we get there. You won't believe a word I tell you." He paused for a few minutes, sharpening his hearing in case the fever-hampered boy needed help. "Anyway, we'll visit the memorial first. Say 'see you later' to Obito."

"Oh!" The young woman brightened "Maybe when we get to where we're going we can make some sort of memorial to him too?"

The blond smiled at her for that, clearly willing to do it if it was allowed by Dumbledore, who seemed to be not only the client, but also the person in charge of the place they were going to. He nodded at her at the same time Kakashi descended the last of the steps leading to the living room.

Both girl and man turned to him, studying his sleep-deprived eye (which was pretty much the only feature they could see of his face) and the way his damp hair had lost some of its usual spikiness. The boy, in turn, stared back at them, fastening the last clasp of his grey chest armor.

"How are you doing, Kakashi-kun?" Asked the girl, a kind smile spreading on her face. The alluded didn't reply, simply stood there for a few seconds before walking over to the door.

Seemingly following a silent command from the feverish boy, the other two got up from the couches, and took their backpacks from the coffee table, Minato asking Rin to carry the lightest of his own as a favor.

The blond then walked up to the gray-haired youth, who was putting on his own sandals and tying his wolf mask tighter to his waist with clumsy, weak movements. He kneeled next to him, a strong arm bringing the boy closer to him, who in return attempted to frown but failed.

"I'll carry you. You'll need some strength for when we meet the client." For a second, it looked like the young ANBU would resolutely refuse, but then he seemed to think better of it, and instead grabbed the tanto that had replaced his father's broken one and allowed his head to rest against his former teacher's shoulder.

Grinning at his triumph, the man turned to the only female in the house, wanting to share his joy, and the girl could do nothing to stop the giggle that came over her. She nodded at him, fastening the last strap of the adult's backpack to fit her own shoulders.

Minato tightened his hold on his former student's shoulders and placed his other arm under the boy's knees before standing up, lifting the boy with practiced ease.

With flicking the lights off and locking windows and doors, the trio made their way to the memorial stone, where they silently paid their respects and promised their fallen teammate they would be back as soon as they could. Rin, of course, did remind the black gravestone that she had the Uchiha's favorite pair of googles in her backpack, so he, too, could be with them to where they were heading to, if the young teen so wished.

Bidding their farewell, the three shinobi bowed before the stone and began the long way towards the Hokage Tower, Konoha's warm air hitting their bodies in the opposite direction as if the village was begging them not to leave.

The blond man was actually forced to wake Kakashi up three times during the race towards the Tower, much to the dismay of the older male because the only thing he wished in that moment was for the boy to be in bed and resting, just like he _should_ be.

"Don't worry, Kashi-chan, once we get there I'll make sure you get some real rest." Murmured the man before lightly kissing the teen's mouth over the black mask he always wore.

Just before entering the Tower, Minato placed Kakashi on his own feet, smiling slightly when the boy's stand didn't waver. The three of them then arranged their porcelain masks over their faces, all of them a more than a little tired for not being able to sleep. Rin gave Minato's backpack back to its owner, who once more adjusted the straps to fit him, deciding that for his own good, Kakashi should not carry any weight that was not his own body.

They jumped through the window silently, only to be greeted by two old men, their faces far less severe than what Minato had last seen them.

The Hokage stood up, formally presenting the blue-robed man to the couple of teenagers. Then, with a motion of his hand invited them to move in front of his desk, next to the oldest male. The three complied, Minato standing just slightly in front of the other two, marking his position of leader.

"The mission will remain unranked." The dark-skinned man began, causing the oldest ANBU to tense. Unranked missions were far more dangerous than S-ranks, precisely because no one knows exactly what to expect. "Your goal will be to protect a school created for young wizards, located on the Outside. The main subject, is one Harry Potter. No one must find out of your identities, save for your name and age if you wish to give them away, unless you decide it is for the success of the mission." The old man extended a picture, that had been given to him by Dumbledore, on the desk, but none of the shinobi made to grab it. "Are there any questions?"

The gray-haired youth gave a tiny stepped forward, but froze. He _must_ have heard wrong. He must have. It had to be the fever finally taking over his thoughts. There was just no way he would believe this wizard thing. If he did, they might remove him from the ANBU forces, deeming him mentally incapacitated.

But Rin had stepped up, too, demanding an explanation. So was it not his imagination? A light touch on his arm broke him out of his thoughts, and he barely heard the explanation given to the kunoichi as he saw Minato's porcelain mask looking at his directly, one hand firmly clasping his arm worriedly.

He looked away, just in time to see the strange elder who claimed to be a wizard pull out a wooden stick and a very disgusting-looking apple from inside his robes. Rin was grateful for the ANBU mask right then and there, otherwise he would have shown their client a very noticeable look of revulsion.

Tapping the apple with the stick, the man turned to announce transport was ready, and extended the expired fruit towards them giving them instructions. They did what they were told, touching the offending food with a single finger while the Hokage still completed his instructions.

"We shall keep in contact!" Was the last thing they heard before feeling a hook attaching somewhere behind their navels and suddenly pulling them away from the office.

Their ninja's world became a blur of colors and sounds and smells, and before they knew it they had been slammed on the ground, not having expected the fall. Minato, who was the only one who had managed react in time, immediately jumped to his feet, and not much later he felt Rin kneeling on the hard-wood floors, one of her weapons pulled out to defend herself in case of need.

It was only then the blond realized they were in a... house. Or so it seemed to be, though it was much creepier than all the ones he had been in. Dumbledore stood in front of them, looking not at the duo but somewhere behind them.

"Kakashi!" The blond exclaimed under his breath, turning to see the gray-headed teen just barely attempting to get up from the floor. Oh, yes, he _really_ wished for this fever to pass soon. He pocketed his kunai, feeling much safer than what he thought he should behind Rin's protection, and aided the boy in getting up.

By the time he returned his attention to Dumbledore, the old man was speaking to a group of people in a language he didn't understand, though none of the unknown adults seemed to be convinced of what he was saying. The old man turned to them just a little bit, pointing at them with his wand and then back to the other people in the room, who Minato assessed as much weaker than what they seemed.

"Oh, don't you worry. They will only stay a day. Enough for me to warn the rest of the teachers about their arrival."

The blond was surprised to find out he had actually understood the man this time, and quietly got to his feet at the same time the kunoichi of his team did, pulling along a Kakashi that was struggling to get his legs to stop shaking so he could stand by himself.

"Oh, fine! But Albus, if the children find out about this…!" The plump, red-headed woman didn't finish her sentence because she was already motioning at them to follow her.

They stood still, turning to their client, who nodded at them without bothering to give an explanation as to what was going on, apparently believing that a simple smile would be enough for them. But apparently it was, because the next thing they knew was that they were following the woman upstairs and into a room with four beds waiting for them inside.

She ushered them in, and Minato barely remembered to turn around and thank her before she closed the door behind her, hurrying to get away from them.

Feeling somewhat secure inside the room, Rin dropped her luggage next to one of the beds, not bothering to change from her uniform before flopping down on top of the covers. Minato, on the other hand, took the time to help the still dazed Kakashi out of his uniform and into his pajamas before laying him on the mattress next to the one he would be occupying.

"Just rest, all right? Hopefully you'll be much better tomorrow." He told him, leaning down to give him a quick kiss on the forehead.

He then changed his own clothes, aware of the fact that Rin was already fast asleep, and threw himself in the mattress he had chosen for himself. He made sure there was some barrier around the door by means of a jutsu, which would tell him if there was danger nearby, and then allowed the darkness to finally take him.

In their deep, tired slumber, neither shinobi dreamt that night.

* * *

Shrikes are a species of birds, which are very violent when it comes to their eating habits, despite their pretty and peaceful appearances.

And, this is about a month and a half after The Kanabi Bridge mission, where Obito died.

'Kay, so… I know I write "grey" with the british/Canadian/everyotherspeakingcountrytha tisnottheUS English, while verbs such as "realize" are written in US grammar. This is because I'm Mexican, and while I prefer some words to be written like they should be, those verbs just look weird to me written with an S.

Also, about Kakashi being shorter than Rin, I do believe he is, in the manga. Either way, at 13-14 is when boys barely start getting taller than girls, so yes, Kakashi is shorter right now, but he will grow taller. Unless you guys want him to stay the same throughout the whole story, or that they both grow at the same rate, meaning he will grow, but Rin will still be taller by the end. Your call.

asdfasdfasdf, rushed ending.


	2. Un Monde Sans Danger

Hey! Here's a new chapter for you!

THe title is in French, it means "A World Without Danger"

Also, thanks to AAAAAAAALLLL of you who reviewed, added this to their favorites, or added it to their alert list! I usually name you one by one, but this time I have to study, soooooo... please forgive me this time.

To clarify, since two votes went into the Kakashi remains short option of the last chapter, and the other options received no votes, Kakashi is staying short. That is, Kakashi is 147cm (4'9"), Rin stands at 164cm (5'4"), and Minato towers over them at 179cm (5'10").

Aaaaaannnnd! The gods decided (meaning I threw a die) that there will be an M-rated scene between Minato and Kakashi. Should you not want to read it, warn me so that I can make the appropriate signal of when it is going to start and where it ends, so you can skip over it when the time comes.

Oh! And I don't think I need to say anything, but just in case: _Italics_ are the shinobi speaking Japanese. Non-slanted speech is English language.

**EDIT:** Adjusted Rin's surname.

* * *

Un Monde Sans Danger

_She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into her eyes.__  
_**Lewis Carroll**

Minato woke up panting for breath, arms trembling and chest heaving. Adrenaline ran through his veins as the image from his nightmare began to fade. Someone groaned next to him, and the man covered his mouth to prevent a muffled scream.

"_Mina-sensei?"_

Still feeling jumpy, the shinobi turned to his left, were the voice had come from, finding a silver-haired teen lying shirtless on the bed while a girl allowed her hands to hover slightly over the boys chest, green light fading from her hands as she stared at him.

Huh?

As his heartbeat slowed down, the man recognized both little persons, and gave a sigh of relief as he got up from the creaky mattress, walking over to them. He sat down on the dusty hardwood floor at the same time the brown-haired female eyed him worriedly, and the boy pulled on his shirt, slipping the usual black mask back over his still-childish face.

The blond smiled reassuringly at the young girl and turned towards the silver-haired ninja. _"Are you feeling better, Kashi-chan?"_ He extended a large hand above his head, intending to caress the oddly colored hair.

His hand was instead met with a pale, smaller one that didn't allow the man to go near the boy's face. _"Stop calling me that, Minato."_

Despite the fear still clinging to him, the older male pouted at the teen's expressionless face. _"Aww, but I've been calling you that since you got back, and you never said a word about it!"_

Kakashi remained stoic, though his black eyes did travel to his female teammate unnoticeably, almost thankfully, before facing his former sensei's blue ones. _"Now I can speak without getting dizzy."_

Minato tightened his hold on the smaller hand as he got op from the floor, moving to sit on the edge of the bed the grey-haired teen was occupying. Tugging on the limb he was holding, he extended his other arm as well, grabbing Rin by the shoulders, and pulled both children closer to him in a hug, which they returned somewhat hesitantly.

"_Sen—?"_ Began the girl, only to have the man tighten his hold.

"_It's nothing,"_ He explained, though he didn't let go "_I'm just glad both of you are here."_

The silver-haired boy's skin still felt uncomfortably warm against his own, especially when compared to Rin's moderately cold flesh, but he had to admit, there was an abyss of difference between that morning and the night before.

To his surprise, it was Kakashi who first raised his free arm to wrap it around the man's middle after listening to his words, followed by the young girl's tight grasp. And he silently wished he had four arms so he too could hold both teenagers like that, embracing them and supporting them when they seemed to need it the most, just like in that moment.

A sudden, sharp round of knocking on the door made them all flinch, and they looked at each other, wondering why none of them had been able to feel someone approaching. But the confusion was short-lived, and the blond man quickly disentangled from the youngsters' grip to hastily grab his mask and slip it on, walking towards the entryway, alert.

"_Turn away,"_ He called to the teenagers, who immediately obeyed and pointed their faces the other way, towards the window. Satisfied, the blond opened the door, revealing the plump, red-haired woman that had showed them to their room the night before. She looked at his masked face nervously, not speaking. "Can I help you?" Minato prompted. The language he spoke changed without his will, and he immediately wrote it down in his mental list of things to ask once they got to see the client.

The woman attempted to look past him, as if she was trying to take a look at the kids who were also in the room, but he moved his torso to block her view.

"Oh," The red-head frowned, but raised her chubby arms to show him the tray she had been holding. "I just came to give you this. Dumbledore said you wouldn't eat together with us." The blond wasn't completely sure if what he heard was the woman being offended or suspicious, but he took the offered object soundlessly. "He also said someone would be coming in two hours to pick you up."

After he nodded, the woman looked at him for a couple more seconds before stiffly hurrying away, looking to Minato like she was outstandingly glad to be out if his line of sight.

Although confused, the adult one-handedly closed the door, careful to keep the tray from tilting one way or the other before he returned to his place on Kakashi's bed, leaving the trencher in front of the boy's folded legs so that it was within the reach of all three ninja.

The salver, as was to be expected, held three plates that contained some things the shinobi could assume were food, though they had never seen such things in their life, and one fork for each of them.

Kakashi was the first to grab his eating utensil as the other two watched him, and he examined the foreign tool as he silently struggled to understand how on Earth he was supposed to hold the god-dammed thing while his teammates took turns smelling the food, wanting to figure out what its flavor was before putting it in their mouths.

After maneuvering his hand and fingers a few times, the boy finally figured out how to hold the silverware. He explained for both Rin and Minato, and corrected their form by physically moving their fingers when they got them in the wrong position.

They would never admit it to the outside world, but the first mouthful of food they took had them coughing and spluttering, not expecting such strong flavors. From that point on, they ate much slower, carefully tasting each type of food instead of just shoving it of top of their seemingly oversensitive tongues.

Finished with their meal, the shinobi decided to get changed, admitting that they didn't have the slightest idea of where the bathroom was, and were not willing to walk around the house without their uniform on, which defeated the purpose anyway.

Rin, who was already dressed, simply put on her protective gear, back facing her male companions as she fastened the new, shiny silver metal guards over her arms and legs, and clasped on the stiff chest armor. The outfit allowed a red spiral tattoo on her right shoulder to be seen, the skin around it still somewhat inflamed. She gingerly touched the spot, breathing deeply as she mentally prepared for her first ANBU mission.

Once given the OK, the girl turned around to face the other shinobi, both in full gear. There were not many differences between their uniforms; only the fact that the black shirts of both males allowed their collarbones to be seen while hers didn't, and the guards protecting their shins and forearms were insubstantially duller.

"_Wolf,"_ Spoke the blond man, voice a little muffled by the porcelain mask._ "I had trouble sensing these people's chakra signature earlier. I need you to find out why with your Sharingan."_

Kakashi visibly tensed at the man's words before relaxing. His Sharingan. His. Not _the_ Sharingan. Not _Obito's_ Sharingan. A small amount of the almost-violent pressure the Uchiha Clan had put on him over his gift lifted from his shoulders.

"_Yes, sir." _And the boy immediately pushed up the black headband covering his eye, opening it so he could fully stare at the world from behind the expressionless mask. He slowly got up from the mattress, shifting his weight from one leg to the other to test them after the four days he had been bedridden, making sure they wouldn't fail him once more as they had the night before.

Admitting that Rin's medical jutsu had actually helped a great deal, Kakashi somewhat repented of blatantly denying the hospital's aid when he had the chance to obtain it, and acknowledged that to be considered a genius, he had quite a share of idiot moments.

Kakashi picked up his duffle bag despite Minato's protests and slung it over his shoulder, slightly fighting against the cold that he felt had been attacking his skin since a little before he opened his eyes that morning.

"_Are you all ready?" _Rin's breathing was jagged under her mask, a clear sign that she still had to get used to it, but her words were strong enough to be heard.

Both males nodded their heads and walked out the door, the girl following close behind. They were quick and silent as they retraced their steps from the night before, and soon found themselves in the living room, looking every bit as creepy and macabre as it had earlier.

The shinobi knew exactly where to go from there, the loud sound coming from the room just in front of where they were impossible to ignore. Minato walked in front, ready for whichever attack that could come their way. The man opened the door and the foreigners immediately found themselves being the targets of several sticks, held by both adults and children alike, whose faces were wild with fear.

Minato used an arm to protect his chest while the other one flew to his side, forbidding the two younger ninja to give a step further.

"Oh, no, lower your wands, everyone!" The blond heard a woman order, and his eyes followed as said woman moved her arms up and down right in front of the faces of other people, while a man with equally red hair began to do the same thing with children that were close to him.

Eventually, all wizards had put away their wands, and Minato felt it was safe to enter the room. So he did, followed closely by the teenage ANBU. Together, they stood there awkwardly, not used to having people openly stare at them. Not when they had the uniform on, anyway.

The blond allowed a few minutes to pass, trying to find the person who was supposed to take them to their destination. While he did so, he found Top Priority Boy they were supposed to protect; he didn't look like anything special at all, really. He had been expecting at least someone who would seem somewhat superior to the rest, but no; the green-eyed teen just looked like an anxious, tired paranoid, looking at them like that.

Kakashi hummed next to him, looking around the wooden table where people had been sitting. He had closed his normal eye to make sure the Sharingan was getting every last bit of information it could, so now he was interpreting his new data. The chakra signature for these people was extremely odd, the boy could tell that much, but to explain was difficult.

"Who are you?" Demanded one of the wizards, and they were not very surprised to notice it was actually Top Priority who was now frowning at them.

"Harry, don't be rude!" Admonished the plump woman they had interacted the most with, though they still didn't know her name. She turned to the masked trio with uneasiness in her eyes, afraid that they had felt insulted.

Underneath his mask, Minato grinned. "Ah, it's not a problem" He said in the language he still couldn't recognize. Maybe the jutsu Dumbledore had used on them only worked when looking at one of the… wizards? "People get nervous when they see us." And that wasn't even a lie. He turned to Harry, making sure to look at him in the eye even though he couldn't look back. "Mr. Dumbledore hired us as guards for Hogwarts."

A few seconds of silence rolled by and then there was uproar. The shinobi didn't even flinch when people began to question them, launching them dubious stares, or sneering quietly and refusing to face them.

It was Kakashi who coughed to bring the attention towards him, sending off a glare that rather than seen could be felt towards the wizards. He didn't speak further, but Minato could have sworn he saw the boy sway slightly before he caught himself.

The blond grimaced, feeling completely guilty about telling the boy to use a tool that drained him of so much chakra. He opened his mouth to tell him to quit using it, that the task could be done when he was feeling better, but was stopped by a loud _POP_ coming from behind him.

In an instant, the shinobi had turned around, weapons drawn and threatening the woman that had appeared out of thin air. Her thin figure stiffened, and with a stern look proper of the woman's face, she eyed the metal weapons. Though she tried to keep her composure, her gray eyes widened a bit at the blades.

After a few seconds, the woman finally cleared her throat, unnerved by the unmoving swords, which lingered near her neck. "My name is Minerva McGonagall. I was sent here to pick up the guards Dumbledore hired… I assume that would be you?"

Minato and Rin immediately retrieved their katanas, though Kakashi's tantō remained in place. The woman, in turn, stared at the wild greyish hair that the creepy mask didn't hide, its thickness immediately squashing the idea of old age.

"How do we know—" The boy stopped suddenly. The grip on his tantō tightened before loosening a bit, the weapon lowering immediately. He gave a step back, realization finally downing on him, and sheathed the blade back into the shiny red, wooden holster located on his back.

The stern woman looked at all three of them before stretching out her hand towards Toad, who was closer to her. The masked man openly stared at the offered limb for a few seconds before exchanging glances with both shorter uniformed ANBU. He looked back at the hand, then directed his gaze to McGonagall's face and gave a low bow.

Feeling decidedly awkward, the aging woman copied the blond, bowing just slightly before stiffly repeating the motion with the other shinobi. She then passed them an envelope, not moving until they opened and read it.

Minato was the one who grabbed a hold of it, showing it to Kakashi to study so he could be a hundred percent sure it was safe. When the boy nodded his head, the man bent down so his mouth was in the same level as Wolf's ear.

"_Close your eye, Kashi. I'll keep on it now." _He muttered. He knew the thirteen-year-old had obeyed, for the teen's posture relaxed a tiny fraction.

The blond then proceeded to tear the yellowish paper to extract the even more yellowish parchment from the inside. The three shinobi leaned in to read the message, and watched, awed, how the unknown characters _moved_ around the paper to form a much more comprehensible style of handwriting.

The letter was straightforward. Simply stated that McGonagall would tell them what their duty was until she took them to Hogwarts Train Station, and then they would be by themselves to register said place and the locomotive to improve defenses or create new ones. During the ride, they were to make rounds to ensure the safety of all students.

All three of them looked up from the letter and nodded their understanding at the woman. Minato controlled his impulse to destroy the letter right then and there; if these people were scared of just seeing them, any of his techniques would only enhance the feeling, and from what he understood by a quick assessment, they were not supposed to fear them, but trust them.

"I would like to explain more to you about these people," McGonagall told the people sitting around the table.

All the eyes were upon her, except for the plum woman's who was now attempting to usher the six teenagers upstairs.

"But _mum_!"

"Come on! It's not fair!"

Similar shouts were being exchanged, mainly from a group of young redheads to a couple of older ones, and the blond ANBU was beginning to get frustrated by the lack of cooperation. He didn't understand why the children had to leave, for starters, since they seemed even older than his two charges, but he also didn't get why, if they had already been ordered, the teens just obeyed instead of fighting a losing battle.

In the end, all teenagers abandoned the kitchen with sour expressions, stomping their feet and slamming doors in a very juvenile display of anger. The adults, however seemed to think of it as a normal (or at least common) reaction, and didn't bother trying to scold them for their behavior.

"Very well," McGonagall started again, motioning for the three ninja to come closer to the table. They did so, Minato standing in the middle, each of the younger soldiers to his sides. "First of all, I would like to introduce you to Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin." As she spoke, the aging woman pointed to the plum woman they already knew, a man with red hair, then to a thin man with black hair, and finally to a sickly-looking male. "They are part of the Order, as are Dumbledore and myself."

The woman looked at them as though she expected some sort of reaction, but the ANBU remained stoic in their body language.

"'Order'?" Asked Rin, voicing the growing doubt on both of her teammates' minds. Her question was met with a confused expression on most faces.

"The Order of the Phoenix," Began the teacher once more, trying not to sound surprised by the lack of information the ninjas seemed to have "Is a secret society created to fight against the Dark Lord." Having a general idea of who this person was, the trio nodded in understanding. "Now, I'm sure everyone here would prefer to see your faces. We haven't trusted masked people for quite a while."

Rin and Kakashi looked at the Squad Leader for confirmation. The blond hesitated, however, analyzing his options. Finally, he decided to follow the instructions on the letter they had been shown and obey the woman. He slowly untied the red string that held the mask up, and the teenagers were quick to imitate him.

The wizards stared at the faces in front of them, taking in the youthfulness of all three ninjas. Most of the attention was either on the man's cobalt blue eyes, which didn't hide the smile his mouth refused to form, and the _very_ young faces of his teammates.

"Is this some sort of joke, McGonagall?" The man previously identified as Black said, his laid-back posture changed to become suspicious. "That one can't be older than ten."

Minato frowned deeply when he saw, out of the corner of his eye, Kakashi clench his fists. The boy, who always made it a point to stand at the blond's left, looked at the black-haired man straight in the eye.

"I am almost fourteen. And I do not see how my age is of importance." Minato didn't see it either. Both Rin and Kakashi were amazingly skilled shinobi, why pay attention to the number of trips around the sun they had completed? Besides, the boy hardly looked _ten._ Saying he looked ten was like saying Jiraiya looked _thirty_, which was far from the truth.

"They are just children! What was Dumbledore thinking?!" The red-headed woman insisted, ignoring Kakashi's remark. Her eyes travelled from Rin's body to Minato's face and finally to the grey-haired boy's jagged scar, plainly visible without the Konoha headband covering it.

"We are not children." The blond said calmly, though he was a little bothered by the fact _he_ had been called a kid as well. "There will be no problem for us during our assignment."

"Molly, I'm sure that if Dumbledore trusts them, we should, too." Ah, finally someone who could think. Minato made sure to mentally thank the red-headed man.

"Don't be ridiculous, Arthur! They are the ones who should be in school and have protection!"

"I'm twenty-six." Minato supplied quietly, knowing the wizards were not even paying him attention.

"We should at least see their skills before judging them."

"Oh, not you, too, Remus!"

"I think Dumbledore should—"

"Please—!"

"Don't interrupt him!"

The sound of metal hitting wood silenced the adults immediately, and they looked around only to find Kakashi eyeing them, a blank stare plastered on the visible part of his face. He held a shuriken in his hand, ready to launch it if they were to start ignoring them again.

Rin's hand flew to her mouth and she looked away in an attempt not to show the adults she was laughing at the scene. She then cleared her throat, deflecting the attention from her teammate's increasingly irritated face to her own.

"We have been selected by our village's leader to perform this mission. We are experienced, so you can rest easy." For once, she didn't smile, for her eyes travelled to where her youngest teammate now pocketed his weapon.

The adults expressions shifted from incredulity to shock and then back to incredulity. "Are we supposed to trust you because you can throw muggle weapons?"

_The Hell is a muggle?_ "Ah, you really shouldn't worry. We are part of the strongest group of shinobi in Konoha." Minato finally spoke up. He closed his mouth for a second, assessing the wizards. They still seemed doubtful, though now the red-headed man was looking at him with interest. What could make them trust them a little more? "My name is Minato Namikaze, twenty-six years old." He gave another bow, hopping that treating these people with respect would earn him respect as well.

With both of his former students glancing at him strangely, the man simply smiled kindly at the other adults and sent an apologetic gesture to McGonagall, who didn't seem to know if she should trust her own instincts or trust her boss' crazy ideas.

Kakashi let out a weary sigh and crossed his arms over his chest, looking tired. "Kakashi Hatake, and like I said, I'm almost fourteen years old."

Most of the men nodded at him, apparently a little more convinced of his abilities. Molly, though, still looked scandalized. She had her hand over her mouth, her eyes traveling between Rin and Kakashi as though she couldn't decide which of them needed a hug the most. Her eyes finally settled on the girl.

"And you, dear?" Her voice trembled with something akin to worry.

The kunoichi actually smiled at her sadly at her tone of voice. She didn't understand why it was such a tragic deal for the woman, but at hearing her speak like that, something in her heart told her it didn't really matter _why_, but the fact that it _was _that mattered.

"I'm Rin Nohara, and I'm fifteen." She smiled despite the horrified glances the woman was still giving her, but sent an uncomfortable look to her former sensei, who moved his hand to squeeze her shoulder.

This time, he adults all got up from their seats to formally greet the guards, exchanging a few words with them, and doing their best to forget about their ages as they advised them on several students they knew. Sirius took advantage of the moment to tell the oldest ninja all about Severus Snape and his attempts to make Harry's life impossible, which Minato found rather dull but decided not to comment, since the manwas still watching him with a faint air of suspicion.

Minato snapped his head away from the conversation with former convict, eyes suddenly trained on the door. Soon followed Kakashi and Rin, who had been further away and were being pestered by Molly on how and why that had become soldiers at such a young age.

"Someone's been listening for a few seconds…" Kakashi whispered as he drew out a shuriken form his holster.

"FRED AND GEORGE! YOU BETTER BE FINISHED WITH YOUR PACKING!"

The blond shinobi blinked stupidly at the door when he heard a muffled yell and then the distinctive sound of feet scampering away. He then turned to his teammates, both of who were staring at Mrs. Weasley. Rin was even covering her ears at the woman's superfluous volume.

He sighed and motioned to them, pulling his porcelain mask over his face once more. The teenagers approached him, stoic expressions on their faces as they hid behind their uniforms. When they were close enough, the man hooked his arms around their necks, then turned his face towards McGonagall pointedly.

Getting the message, the stern woman cleared her throat and asked people to calm down so she could concentrate. She got near the ninjas and offered both of her arms to them, explaining the process of what they were about to do.

Slightly skeptical, Kakashi and Rin held on to her left arm while Minato took a hold of her right elbow. The next instant, they were met with an overwhelming darkness and they felt themselves being compressed into nothingness. All three of them attempted to fight, but they were being pulled so fast it was impossible for them to do it.

They landed on their feet, having already experienced the wonders of Portkey traveling.

Minato easily adjusted his bags over his shoulders, suddenly feeling something pulling at his forearm guard. He looked down, only to discover Kakashi leaning on him just the slightest bit. He knew better than to fuss over the boy when someone other than Rin was around, so he pretended not to notice.

Rin looked around in awe after sending her youngest teammate a concerned look. The place was enormous; the ceilings so high the girl had a hard time believing that birds didn't crash against the glass that made out the ceiling. Her eyes landed on the sleek, black and red machine that stood all along the room.

"What is that?" She asked.

McGonagall regarded her with a funny look "The train." When the girl didn't look back from the Express, the woman turned to the other two. "You are to ensure the Hogwarts Express is safe for all the students during the journey, and have an hour to register the station. You will arrive at a place called Hogsmade, where Professor Grubbly-Plank, will be waiting. No harm is to come to the students on the way to the school. Understood?"

Minato nodded firmly, Rin copying the motion while half her attention was still absorbed by the engine machine. Clearly unconvinced of their respones, McGonagall looked at them stiffly, but seemed to accept their answers in the end. She took a deep breath and once again disappeared with a pop.

Not even a second after the woman was gone, Kakashi was on his knees, ANBU mask on top of his hair and black facemask yanked to his neck as he retched on the floor, unable to hold in the food any longer. Rin flew to his side, her hand instinctively reaching for any visible skin to measure its temperature.

Anger flowed through the oldest shinobi for the first time since the night before. He knelt next to the sick teen and murmured soft words to his ear and drawing soothing circles on the boy's back with his hand. He would really need to talk to the Third about sending ill kids out on missions. That travel method was the most uncomfortable thing he had ever experienced, and for Kakashi, who was not on top form, it had to have been horrible. Sure, the Hokage probably had no way of knowing about it, but still…

After a few seconds of heaving, the Hatake cleaned his enlarged canine teeth with his tongue and spitted on the ground, trying to get rid of the flavor left behind by the vomit. He groaned a little and thanked whoever there was to thank that the station was empty, not counting the three of them. He heard Minato sigh next to him, so he tiredly turned to face him.

"_Well, that's that."_ The man said setting his luggage on the floor to search through it_. "Both of you give me your bags and go rest."_

Rin undid the straps of her backpacks, but Kakashi simply spit again. His arms were trembling with the effort of keeping himself up, but he still frowned slightly, looking back at the blond. _"I'll rest when I'm dead."_

The Namikaze decided to take a page out of Jiraiya's book. _"That's what scares me, brat."_ The boy attempted a defiant stare, but in his current state, it failed miserably. _"Look, no one's going to judge you, all right? You're sick. So just go and rest."_

The blond met Rin's mask in a silent plead. She didn't need to nod; she took a hold of Kakashi's arm while her former sensei took the other and they both helped the boy back to his feet. Resigned, the youngest handed his duffle bag over.

Taking it, Minato watched as the two teenagers left, slowly walking towards the train-thing, hopefully to actually rest and not to either scold or receive a scolding. He hesitated for a few seconds, but against his better judgment he decided not to touch the vomit.

He turned to his left, his eyes barely catching a sign that read "_Platform 9__3/4_", and he left all the luggage on the floor. Skillful hands took out a few scrolls out of his weapon pouch and one by one, they deposited all five bags into the storage mediums, then placed them back into his pouch.

The station was definitely big. Terribly unprotected, however. ANBU Toad spent the next forty-five minutes setting actual working defensive mechanisms, investigating the station, and wondering how was is possible that Dumbledore had referred to Hogwarts as a very safe place when he talked to the Third, given the obvious lack of safety. But well, that wasn't the school. The other building would hopefully be a fortress.

Knowing he still had to find his team in that giant train, Minato hurried back to where they had originally arrived and made his way into the vehicle cautiously. The inside of the locomotive was pretty luxurious, considering it was intended for a bunch of schoolchildren. His sandaled feet slightly sank on the plushy carpet that covered the floor as he walked, taking note of the golden doors with a small window that seemed to separate little rooms from the main hallway.

He relaxed, trying to feel the chakra signature of him former students, and succeeding, quickly made his way over to the compartment they were in. He could already see some kids on the platform, so he hurried to open the door and walking inside.

Both Rin and Kakashi were sitting on the same bench, leaving the one in front of them free. He was actually glad they weren't fighting. The man eyed the male teen's once-again-masked face, studying the strangely relaxed posture the boy sported. His eyebrows rose almost to his hairline, since when was Kakashi one to lean his head on windows?

"_Oh,_" Minato finally said, a small smile forming on his lips "_He fell asleep?_"

"_I made him sleep_." Rin pulled out a small, transparent-orange bottle full of pills and moved her hand so that the contents would jingle.

His smile faltered "_Why?_"

The man could practically see the girl's disapproving frown. "_He was being stubborn, sensei!_"

"_So you _drugged_ him?_"

After a few seconds of hesitation, the kunoichi shrugged her shoulders, causing Minato to sigh in response. He could understand, though, somewhat. The boy could be very bull-headed when he was tired or when he felt weak. So he nodded, albeit reluctantly, and moved to sit down across from the two teenagers. Kakashi needed the rest anyway.

The older shinobi talked for a few minutes, Minato explaining what he had found in regards to the security and assuring the girl that he had covered all the possible weaknesses he had seen around the place. Rin then sighed a little at the thought of having to go through the whole train at some point during the trip; even using chakra to make clones seemed exhausting to her, taking into account the considerable lack of sleep she was experiencing. She hesitated at drinking one of her own sleeping pills, but decided against it in the end. She couldn't just leave the blond alone when he too was suffering from sleep deprivation.

Minato's head snapped to the door, and Rin was not far behind in reaching for her weapon holster, turning her body so that the potential enemy could see as little of her sleeping teammate as possible.

The door opened with a loud yank, revealing the faces of four very confused young people who after a few moments of dumb staring pulled out their wands to point them at the ninja.

"Who're you?" Asked one of the boys with urgency, the hand holding his only means of defense trembling.

"They're guards." Called another voice from the back, and Rin almost had to stand on her tiptoes to see over the group of tall people to notice one of the redheaded boys she had noticed back at the old house they had been in earlier "Dumbledore hired them."

That seemed to do the trick, since all the teens lowered the wooden sticks before slowly and carefully choosing their seats, Minato noticed, a bit separated from them.

The man was about to get up and sit on Kakashi's other side so that the kids from the school could huddle together away from them if they wanted to when something poked him lightly on the arm. He looked down to see the slightly familiar bushy-haired girl, whose brown locks were now rubbing uncomfortably into his bare shoulder.

Awkwardly staring, Toad ANBU opened his mouth to ask the girl what she needed, only to close it a second later when the teen did the same thing.

"I'm Hermione Granger," The girl said. Minato nodded at the name. "I was wondering… Where are you guys from? I don't recognize your, um…" She doubted, brown eyes traveling from the blond's mask to the identical outfits all the shinobi wore "Uniforms."

"We can't tell you that unless our client says it's okay." The man replied in his best professional tone, and this time he was sure he didn't actually understand the words he spoke. _Was_ he speaking in the other language? He looked at Rin, but the kunoichi's posture didn't betray her opinion on neither the answer nor the language he had spoken.

When the girl reacted to his answer, Minato had never been more certain that he had never seen someone so disappointed, except for that one time he had told a nine-year-old Obito that he couldn't go eat ramen with him since he had to drop both Rin and Kakashi at their own homes and then had to rush for a mission. He still felt a pang of guilt over it; it really hadn't been that late, he could have taken all the children with him. And the mission wasn't that important either, it could have waited until he had paid proper attention to his student.

It was the action of Rin moving out of her seat what brought him out of his memories. The young woman stood between a dark-skinned girl, and a platinum-blond teen boy. She held a kunai firmly to the male's throat, even when her body language told Minato she wasn't really planning on attacking him.

"We want no fights while we're on this train." Shrike ANBU told him, using her elbow to push him aside.

The kid had the nerve to put a smug look on his pale face, staring down at the girl, despite the small tremble of his hands that Minato was able to catch. Not surprisingly, the boy asked just what he thought he was going to ask, followed by exactly the same answer they have already given twice that day.

"Then get that thing away from me! Don't you know who my father is?" The younger blond demanded, earning a slightly more offensive stance from the kunoichi.

Minato quickly moved to sit next to his other teammate, letting Rin handle herself. He knew she wouldn't have a problem dealing with the taller teen; probably was much stronger, too, despite what the kid, judging by the superior look he was throwing at her, seemed to believe.

After a threat laced with half-hearted killing intent, everyone was in their respective seats, though it was still easy to see the nervousness in everybody's stiff postures.

Six hours, four emergency plans from the teens that surrounded them, eleven rounds around the train, and twenty-three attempts of starting a fight in the compartment after they had left the station, Kakashi still hadn't shown any signs of coming back to the world of the living, and Minato was really started to get worried.

Discretely, the man reached for the boy's wrist, trying to feel the blood pumping through the veins, and sighed in relief at the normal rhythm underneath his fingers. The young woman, who had silently insisted Kakashi to sit between the both of them after their first inspection of the train, sighed dramatically, which attracted several stares of the growingly weary occupants of the compartment.

"_I gave him just enough for a person his height. He'll wake up when he has to." _Apparently either the trip or the whole magic thing had also made Rin fatigued as well, since her words were usually much kinder. Then again, Minato probably should have noticed that when she somehow forced a pill down the boy prodigy's throat.

"_Well, sorry."_ The man whispered, letting go of the Hatake's wrist and attempting to soothe himself by the feeling of the boy's head resting placidly against his shoulder. _"If he dies, though, I'm telling Kushina. See if she likes her sensei's _little baby boy _being killed by his teammate."_

Despite the profile they were trying to maintain in front of the students, the Konohan girl shuddered, a mental image of her sensei being chased around the village by an irate, red-headad woman worming into her brain. That was how the female jinchuuriki had first reacted to Minato's _relationship_ with Kakashi. Cold sweat bean to form at Rin's forehead at the thought of what Kushina would do to her if she actually _killed_ the boy. She too grabbed a light hold of one of the Wolf ANBU's wrists to make sure there was still a healthy pulse.

Under the mask, her eyes widened a little when she felt the limb twitch, followed by the sharp intake of breath that was usually followed by a yawn or a groan, but Kakashi merely buried the side of his head a little more into his former sensei's arm before slowly raising his head to scan his surroundings.

Hidden eyes made a point to watch every single face out of the twenty-six that were around him, not stopping for a long time on the people he already knew. Black irises stopped on a blond teen that seemed indecisive between being smug or feeling threatened. He looked a lot like a frail, whiny version Yamanaka Inoichi, Kakashi reasoned in his drugged state, but stupid and a lot shorter.

"_Are you feeling any better?" _Kakashi heard, and he slowly nodded, even though he didn't feel much of anything at all. He moved his fingers on his right hand to try and get the feeling back in them.

The blond grinned under his mask and returned attention to the rest of the teenagers, most of which were now staring at the silver-haired ANBU like he was some sort of caged animal that was going to attack them at any moment.

Minato swore he could see the young teen's bored expression as he studied the unknown children. He allowed one heavy hand to fall on Kakashi's shoulder, his absolute relief masked in a simple gesture. The boy turned to him, understanding, and gave slight nod.

"_How long was I out?"_ The porcelain wolf found Rin's own mask, a querulous glance in the hidden, young features. _"How much time do we have until we get to the town?"_

"_You were asleep for a little more than six hours" _Well, he had counted six hours, but the sky he could see from the window was much too dark for that. _"…I think. And…"_ The blond paused, admitting he didn't know the answer to the second question.

He turned towards the bushy-haired girl that had been staring at them for almost the whole trip and asked her. The girl seemed startled, but roughly grabbed the wrist for the red-head sitting next to her. Her sudden expression of surprise made almost all the young wizards jump from their seats and hastily run out of the compartment. Minato stared at the commotion. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Rin's shrike mask turn to him, like he expected him to explain what was going on. Finally, the girl—Hermione, she had said her name was—turned back to him, black clothes under her arm as she too made to run out the door.

"Sorry sir, we have ten minutes left, so we have to change." Was the hurried answer he got before the girl, too disappeared behind the heavy metal door that led to the main hallway.

With the new information in hand, the three shinobi rose from their seats and planned their formation to get the students to the school safely.

When the train stopped, they made their way out of the train. Rin hissed quietly and brought a hand to rub her arm, taken aback by the cold air. They walked around as the kids either shied away from them or stared long enough to be pushed out of their stupor by their friends. Not even Minato, who was the tallest out of them, was able to look over the heads of all the older students. He frowned a bit at it, but then shrugged it off and instructed the younger ANBU to go to their posts as all the children fell into a messy, wide line behind a woman with close-cropped grey hair.

Kakashi went to the very back of the row while Rin hurried to reach the middle-left side of the students. The blond, however, first made sure to flicker himself in front of the professor, who jumped at the sight of the man.

"Are you Miss Grubbly-Plank?" He asked, noticing the fear on the woman's face as he crossed his arms over his chest. He stopped; he wanted to shield himself from the cold, but it was obviously frightening the teacher.

"Yes." The woman said, looking behind herself at the group of children that were looking at them intently. Her eyes must have fallen on Rin, because though she didn't relax, she did seem a little less edgy. "Are you the guards Dumbledore hired?"

He nodded "I will be over there." He pointed to the woman's right, hoping she understood the exact spot just by his pointing . "My teammates are already covering the rest of the group."

He swiftly ran to his post before the teacher could say anything, and this time he did cross his arms protectively over his chest. Truth to be told, the wind was not that cold, but it was not a temperature to be expected at the very beginning of September. Nor the sky was supposed to be that dark.

The blond took a fleeting glance at the back of the student-formed line, Kakashi's small frame obscured by the comparatively prominent wizards, and he hoped the kid was being shielded from most of the cool wind.

The walk was longer than what they had expected, and Rin found herself wondering if it wasn't possible for the station to be built closer to the school. She followed the group in silence, catching slurs of conversations about boys and crushes and how Harry Potter was crazy. She fought the urge to roll her eyes. Sure, she liked boys and she couldn't deny that she thought about them or had conversations with her friends about the topic, but the mission said that these kids were in danger. That's why they were hired. And surely Dumbledore had promised a lot of money to the village, since asking for three ANBU, let alone a Black Ops squad captain like Minato was, was sure to be expensive. So why were the teens having such petty conversations? They didn't seem scared or anguished at all.

The female ANBU breathed a sigh of relief when the grey-haired woman leading the students stopped, calling out to the first-year students to follow her.

As the smaller kids cautiously made their way towards the woman and the older ones began to walk in the opposite direction, Rin looked around in an attempt to find her companions, since this hadn't been a part of the plan. Kakashi found her first, his hands clenched in fists and shoulders tense. She was alerted for a second, then noticed the faint trembling of his arms. Grimacing at the obvious signs of a dispelling, but still present fever, the girl walked over to him.

"_Are you—"_

"_The captain wants us with him. He said the younger ones had to go alone." _The grey-haired male's words were strained and short.

She nodded at him, and together they made their way through the black-clad teenagers. They found the blond standing next to Top Priority Boy, both of them staring at black leathery _winged_ horses. As they came closer, the teenaged ANBU cringed slightly at the easily noticeable bones all along the sleek creature's body. A glance at the rest of the open carriages told them the one they had noticed first was not the only one that was pulling the carts.

Harry turned from the horse to his friends, jumping when he saw the guards standing behind him. The boy then turned to the left, trying to find something that was clearly missing, only to find it a few meters away. He began walking towards his friends, who were already sitting in one of the carriages and looking back at him confusedly.

"Hey," A mature voice called and Harry looked back to an eerie porcelain mask. The man didn't pay him much attention however, and instead looked back and pointed at the animal he had just been looking at. "What are these?"

Harry just shook his head and walked off, too startled by either the guards or the creature to answer. Minato stared after him, brushing off Rin's whispered opinion on the boy's rudeness.

"_I would prefer if we used one of these."_ The man said to his companions as he pointed to one of the carts with his head. They were beginning to move, though the man didn't seem to be in a hurry. _"But then most of the kids would be unprotected. Shrike, can you cover the right flank by yourself?"_ The girl nodded quickly and rushed towards a more appropriate point on top of the trees that surrounded the path the demonic horses were taking. Minato looked down at the silver-haired teen next to him and kneeled, a grin plastered on his whole body language _"You, young man, are riding on my back weather you want to or not."_

Kakashi wasn't amused. He leaned away from the blond. _"No."_

"_If you let me take you to the school, I'll stop 'babying you' for as long as your next illness lasts."_ Because they both knew there would be a next one, whenever it would come. With Kakashi's obstinate necessity to train even when he wasn't supposed to, there would _always_ be another illness.

Without a word, the boy wrapped his arms around Minato's neck. He would never admit it, but the man's warmth did ease the uncomfortable feeling of fire and ice attacking his skin. He allowed the man to pick him up and fall into a steady rhythm as they followed the carriages towards the school.

"_How has Kushina-san been?"_ Kakashi asked into Minato's ear after a few minutes of silence. The boy felt the man's grip on his tights stiffen.

"_Kakashi—"_

"_I understand what happened. I'm not angry, we weren't even together then." _The blond felt how the teen shook his head only to rest it on his shoulder a second later_. "I'm just asking how she is doing. She hasn't visited me lately."_

Minato slowed his pace, but he did his best not to stop. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. _"She's okay. She… says the pregnancy can be hell, though."_

There was a minute of blissful silence that allowed the adult to hope the matter had been dropped. But then the grey-haired teen hugged his neck tighter.

"_What are you naming him?"_

"_I don't _know_, Kashi."_

The boy frowned and lifted his head, studying the heads of the teenagers below them. _"But isn't he due soon? How come you don't have a name?"_

Minato refused to reply. Mostly because he didn't know the answer, but there was also the ever-lingering question of what exactly would happen to the baby once he was born. He knew Kushina was having trouble balancing out how she could take care of the boy while still going on missions, and he… well, despite what Kakashi said, he still feared the boy's reaction to his son.

"That_'s the school?"_

The blond snapped his head up when he heard the alarmed tone in the youngster's voice. Blue eyes widened at the size of the building: it was as big as a castle! Not only that, it actually looked like a castle as well; with the greenish (or were they grey?) tiles that adorned the ceilings of the tallest towers the ninja had ever seen.

It was another unexpected turn of events, but hopefully it would make the mission a little more interesting than what it initially sounded. A slight dread filled the elder's mind: How would they cover all that ground every day and night and not end up chakra depleted?

The carriages carrying the students came to an abrupt stop, causing Minato so halt as well. The blond looked over to where his female teammate was; a sinister presence among the surely innocent children she was now following towards the imposing gate of the castle.

Kakashi let go of Minato's neck, easily sliding off the man's back and steadying himself on his feet before the pair followed the group of students. They reached Rin, easily falling into step with her. Thankful for the masks covering their faces, the three of them marveled at the architecture of the castle, unable to stop even when they had gone through the massive metallic doors and had begun walking through the cold hallways of the castle's insides.

"You three." Said a familiar voice. Several students turned towards the source, but continued when they noticed the call wasn't for them. The ninja instead walked over to the woman, who, if possible, looked even sterner than what she had back when she had gone to get them several hours ago. "You are to go through those doors and stand where you think it would be best. Then stay silent. Professor Dumbledore wants to speak with you after the feast, so you must stay where you are until all the students are gone."

She didn't wait for their nod of agreement, simply started off towards a wooden door where a rather strong amount of chakra had begun to accumulate. Kakashi, having explained to his former sensei what he had seen through the brief use of the Sharingan, was quick to assume the energy had to belong to at least fifty people. He attempted to find some sort of threat in the room, but found nothing and hurried to go into what seemed to be the main hall.

The grey-haired boy heard a quiet gasp next to him. He looked up to his friend, the girl's mask tilted upward to look at the ceiling. Intrigued, the boy imitated her. He quirked up an eyebrow at what clearly appeared to be the sky; there was a roof, he was sure of that much since there was no wind. Instinctively, the boy walked over to where he usually did when he was assigned sentry duty: the corner farther away from the door at his right. He saw Rin take over the other corner along his wall, and knew Minato had taken the opposite side of the room for himself.

The youngest ANBU could hear the students speaking, but he did his best to concentrate on something else. He considered the decoration on each of the five tables that took up most of the gigantic room. The one with the red mantle was the closest to his and Rin's side of the hall, and he was hit with the unnerving thought that its occupants had to be the loudest out of the whole bunch. Next was a yellow one, which was, he was glad to say, slightly more quiet. Then there was blue, the shade so kind to his eyes after the shocking brightness of the other two houses that he decided those kids were automatically their favorite, even when they began looking at him and his companions in a way that made him hate them. He didn't bother observing the green table when he saw Minato attempt a glare at one of the students.

As the boy's eyes moved towards the only table placed horizontally in a higher place than the rest, the grand wooden doors opened, revealing stoic-faced McGonagall and a rather long line of children walking behind her.

The place immediately quieted down. Everyone intently watched as the aging witch walked over to stand in front of the table with the purple cloth draped over it, placing a three-legged stool on the floor. Then she was quick to put a scruffy, patched-up pointy hat on top of it.

Rin could only tilt her head slightly as the largest rip on the hat opened up.

_In times of old, when I was new,  
And __Hogwarts b__arely started,  
The founders of our noble school  
Thought never to be parted.  
United by a common goal,  
They had the selfsame yearning  
To make the world's best magic school  
And pass along their learning._

At that, the kunoichi's mouth parted slightly in surprise. The hat was talking. No. No, it wasn't even talking; it was _singing_. She looked over to see if her friends looked as startled as she felt, but neither of them looked the tiniest bit amazed.

_"Together we will build and teach"  
The four good friends decided.  
And never did they dream that they  
Might someday be divided.  
For were there such friends anywhere  
As Slytherin and Gryffindor?  
Unless it was the second pair  
Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw,  
So how could it have gone so wrong?  
How could such friendships fail?  
Why, I was there, so I can tell  
The whole sad, sorry tale._

_Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those  
Whose ancestry's purest."_

_Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose  
Intelligence is surest"_

_Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those  
With brave deeds to their name."_

_Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot  
And treat them just the same."_

_These differences caused little strife  
When first they came to light.  
For each of the four founders had  
A house in which they might  
Take only those they wanted  
so, for instance, Slytherin  
Took only pure-blood wizards  
Of great cunning just like him.  
And only those of sharpest mind  
Were taught by Ravenclaw  
While the bravest and the boldest  
Went to daring Gryffindor.  
Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest  
and taught them all she knew,  
Thus, the Houses and their founders  
Maintained friendships firm and true. __So Hogwarts worked in harmony  
for several happy years,  
but then discord crept among us  
feeding on our faults and fears._

_The Houses that, like pillars four_  
_had once held up our school_  
_now turned upon each other and_  
_divided, sought to rule._  
_And for a while it seemed the school_  
_must meet an early end._  
_what with dueling and with fighting_  
_and the clash of friend on friend._  
_And at last there came a morning_  
_when old Slytherin departed_  
_and though the fighting then died out_  
_he left us quite downhearted._  
_And never since the founders four_  
_were whittled down to three_  
_have the Houses been united_  
_as they once were meant to be._

_And now the Sorting Hat is here  
and you all know the score:  
I sort you into Houses  
because that is what I'm for.  
But this year I'll go further,  
listen closely to my song:  
though condemned I am to split you  
still I worry that it's wrong,  
though I must fulfill my duty  
and must quarter every year  
still I wonder whether sorting  
may not bring the end I fear.  
Oh, know the perils, read the signs,  
the warning history shows,  
for our Hogwarts is in danger  
from external, deadly foes  
and we must unite inside her  
or we'll crumble from within  
I have told you, I have warned you...  
let the Sorting now begin._

"Branched out a bit this year, hasn't it?"

"Too right it has,"

Kakashi frowned a bit, trying to forget about the queer hat by listening to the students. His eyes fell on when he though was the most interesting conversation as a bushy, brown-haired girl wondered about a warning out loud. How could a hat ever give a warning? But then, the song had sounded a little odd even to him, and considering what he understood of the situation with the poor amount on information they had been given and the conversation he had heard from the students before the hat began singing, maybe the girl was right.

But once again, the grey-haired boy disconnected from reality as the room became quiet for a second time, except the show at the front was now boring and dull list of names followed by the dirty hat yelling something and then a round of applause.

And then finally, _finally_, Dumbledore stood from his seat at the center of the staff table and invited all of the students to eat. Even watching the kids launch themselves at the magically appearing food, Kakashi had a hard time even wondering where one Earth the items had come from. Now completely free from the drug Rin had used on him, he felt the ache in his head coming back. The cold in the room intensified, and the boy wanted nothing more than to crawl under some covers and go to sleep. He didn't even want to eat. No, just thinking about the heaviness of the morning food made him want to puke for the second time that day.

The youngest ANBU didn't even know how long it had been, but by the sudden worry he felt in the air—pointed towards him, he knew, and he tried to send his team captain a signal to show he was okay— he snapped back into attention. His gaze passed over the table, where food was no more, and instead the plates had become shiny for how clean they were. Rather than focusing much attention on things he couldn't quite comprehend at the time, his black eye fell on the headmaster, standing up and making a hearty little speech on school rules.

"As you might have seen, we have some new friends this year!" The old man beamed, motioning at the shinobi's general direction with his hands. "They are very special guards I decided to hire to help us through the hard times that are upon us. They are ninja that have come all the way from Japan to aid us!" The silver haired boy could have groaned at the description would it not had been terribly unprofessional. "They are here to protect our beloved school, but I must remind you that if you do something they believe is a threat, they will not doubt about harming you first and asking for reasons later."

"_This is all very amazing,"_ Kakashi's mind voice drawled _"But if you could hurry…"_

Not even his thought had finished when another voice rose through the air, high-pitched an irritating. Minato shifted, the thirteen-year-old saw, as the woman began talking.

The blond was listening intently to every word, unfazed by the dirty look the squat woman gave him. He really had a lot of questions to ask Dumbledore. He didn't understand what the Ministry of Magic was, but by the utter crap that was coming out of the pink-wearing monstrosity's mouth, he could imagine it being something like the elders, back in Konoha. And seeing the faces of the rest of the adults in her table, his idea didn't seem all that outlandish.

The oldest shinobi remained still as the scattered, disoriented applause broke out, feeling his mouth go dry. Yes, he wasn't completely sure of the details involving everything in the school or the pink Umbridge woman, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that not everything was going as perfect as it was supposed to.

Together with his younger companions, he obeyed McGonagall's previous order and waited until the mess that was the hall emptied; ignoring the little shoves the students in green managed when walking by him. Slowly, he began walking towards the center of the room, an action the teenage ANBU imitated soon enough. The adults that were sitting at the table approached as well, but he could clearly see their movements were stiff compared to their own.

"Dumbledore! What is all this about guards?!" The same irritatingly keyed voice that had spoken previously yelled.

The oldest man was either very patient, or he pretended he was. He only looked at the woman for a second before smiling warmly. "Oh, Dolores, you must understand. The school can never have too much protection. Everything for out dear students don't you think?"

Most of the teachers looked at the ninja curiously, but neither Umbridge nor the man with greasy black hair bothered to hide their disgust.

"And I suppose it would be too much to ask of our _friends_ to remove their masks?" Were the first words the man allowed to slip from between his clenched teeth.

"We would prefer not to do so in front of so many people." Minato imitated the man's coldly polite tone. It was an outright lie, since he had no problem with the quantity of people, but rather who those people included. "But if you must know, we are referred as codenames. I am Toad, aged twenty-six. The lady is Shrike, aged fifteen. And the young man is Wolf, age thirteen." He paused here silently observing the changes in the pink witch's expression, trying to get a reaction. "We will make sure your school is protected at all times."

Dumbledore brought his hands together in a gesture that said he couldn't think of anything more delightful in his life than to have Hogwarts protected by the shinobi. He then pointed at each of the teachers, indicating their name and position. "If you have any questions, I hope they can wait for tomorrow. I am sure all of you must be very tired from the long trip." His twinkling blue eyes fell discreetly on Kakashi's rigid posture.

Minato fought the absurd urge to hide the boy behind him, and nodded. "It has been a long journey, yes. But we need to begin our duties." He swore he felt a deadly threatening intent in the air coming from one of the two teenagers on either side of him, but he was too focused on Dumbledore to figure out who had sent it.

"You needn't worry about that, my boy. Your duties will begin tomorrow." The old man winked at the blond, leaving him confused. "For now, Minerva, would you show them to their room? A special dinner is already waiting for them."

The stern woman nodded immediately, looking pleased and urged to get out of the Hall. She began walking after motioning for the shinobi to follow and deciding they were better off doing what they were told, the three of them walked behind her.

Mazes made of stone were easy enough for the ANBU to remember as they were led through various corridors and up and down so many flights of stairs a normal person would have lost the sense on whether they were moving up or down.

After a few minutes, they came to stand in front of a painting made of mainly blues and oranges. The sky extended over the awkward representation of a bald man holding his face, his mouth open in mid-scream.

"_Such an interesting choice."_ Rin thought bitterly, her face contorting in a grimace.

The beady eyes of the depicted male bore into them, and then his mouth moved, though the pained expression never left his features. "New password?" The voice, too, was painful to hear.

McGonagall turned to them, assessing them one last time. "These will be your quarters. There is enough living space in there, and a bathroom had been made available for you to use. You are to decide your password in privacy and tell it to him" She pointed to the painting as if it was the most natural thing in the world "That is the code you must give every time you want to go inside your room. Breakfast starts at seven in the morning tomorrow." Without so much as a good-bye, the witch retreated hastily away from them.

The three ninja discussed their pass in almost muted whispers, even though they knew no one else could understand their language. Deciding, it was Minato who once again took charge, giving a small step towards the painting.

"_He __shall walk this land once more."_ He spoke with a commanding voice.

There was a pause.

"Very well" The suffering voice of the painting replied before sliding away to the left to reveal a passage.

Slightly unnerved, the three Konohans walked across the hole on the wall. The room that awaited them was indeed "enough living space" for them. A little more than that, even.

The main room had a purple rug spread in front of a large fireplace, three black, velvety-looking sofas on top of it and surrounding a small coffee table made from dark wood. To their right was a door which upon later inspection they discovered had a small dining table, over which rested various silver platters full of familiar food; and to their left, another door that led to a big bathroom, where a tub big enough to fit five big-boned people was incrusted to the floor. At the very back of the main room there was a flight of stone stairs.

A bit warmer thanks to the fire burning bright in the room the three of them made their way upstairs. A small lobby, solely decorated by three wooden doors and a big grandfather clock was what they found. The three doors revealed three bedrooms with a fireplace each, and purple carpet covered the floor. All three rooms had a spacious closet and a few drawers, as well as a desk neatly pressed against one of the walls. They soon discovered that, oddly, even though it was physically impossible, above all of the four-poster, beds with black covers there was a window of considerable size.

_"I'll go to sleep now,"_ Kakashi broke the awed silence, much preoccupied by his tiredness than by the living quarters.

_"No, Kakashi-kun!"_ exclaimed Rin, suddenly alarmed. _"You need to eat something first!"_

The grey-haired youth closed his eyes in tired defeat and took off the porcelain mask that obstructed part of his breath. As if for the first time they remembered they were wearing their equipment, the other two followed suit.

_"Oh, right!"_ The blond grinned guiltily pulling the storage scrolls out of the weapon pouch tied to his tight. He undid the jutsu, revealing their luggage. _"Why don't we all take this to our rooms and then go down to have some dinner?"_

Silently agreeing, the teens grabbed their bags and practically dragged them towards the room they claimed as theirs. While Kakashi and Minato simply removed their equipment and changed their shirts once in privacy, Rin completely changed her clothes to a more comfortable set of brown shorts and a light red sleeveless blouse.

Minato was the first to finish changing and he enthusiastically bolted down the stairs and into the dining room, quickly moving all of the platters to the small table in the main room. He was followed by a lethargic Kakashi, who didn't say a word before plopping down on the sofa closer to the stairs.

_"Are you really feeling that bad, Kashi?"_ Whispered the blond, sitting down next to him. The only response he got was the boy wrapping his thin arms around himself, burying himself a little deeper on the sofa. _"Well, Rin-chan said you had to eat. So go on, the sooner you're done the sooner you can sleep."_ He didn't want to sound cold, but he knew if he became overly concerned with Kakashi the boy would not appreciate it in the least.

Not a few minutes passed before two bowls of steaming noodles were placed under their noses, and they both looked over to see the female member of the team smiling slightly at them. They took their share with care, and all three of them murmured their thanks for the food before digging in.

_"So,"_ Rin's voice slithered through the silence _"About this place, what do we know so far?"_

The youngest closed his eyes for a second while the blond man chewed his food _"The students are divided in four colors the moment the get here. Some of the colors don't like each other."_

_"Four houses,"_ Minato corrected _"And we know who the teachers are. Except… I heard some of the kids whispering about another one, apparently very bad at teaching, that was missing."_

_"There's also twenty-four kids who seem to have authority over the rest."_ Rin declared.

And that was it. They had a lot of questions to ask, and their minds were restless with the curiosity of what was there that they didn't know about that could affect their mission for the worse.

Minato felt something fall into his lap, and he looked down to see a mess of silver hair resting there. Observing a bit more carefully, he saw Kakashi's empty bowl was now in the floor, the boy's body taking a big portion of the length of the sofa, as if he had fallen sideways from where he was seating.

The two older shinobi watched the boy carefully.

_"I'm still surprised, you know,"_ Rin said as Minato took off the boy's headband. _"You said he was chakra depleted this Monday?"_ The man nodded and bent awkwardly to pick up the bowl that had fallen to the rug to put it back on the coffee table. _"Well, his level right now is more than half his usual. With a recovery like that… well, hopefully his fever will break through the night."_

Smiling slightly at the news, he rubbed the boy's arm in an attempt to soothe the goose bumps he felt along the pale skin. His expression darkened a bit just seconds later, and he looked up, his sapphire eyes meeting the girl's copper ones.

_"I… find it odd, though. This whole situation. This place seems peaceful, sure, the… government seems a little… forceful, but… that's it."_ Rin understood what the man meant without him saying it _"It doesn't seem like this world is dangerous in the least."_

* * *

So, people are probably going to jump me yelling "You! You gave Kakashi a Tantō and Minato and Rin katanas! So unfair!" Yes. I did. It's not unfair though, or trying to make the kid special. In Kakashi Gaiden, Kakashi uses a tantō. It's been less than two months since then, so I figured that if he was used to wielding a tantō, using a katana, which is almost double (or more) in length, would be a bit too much. And inefficient, too.

Minato is right-handed, from what I can tell, and so Kakashi stands to his left to protect Minato's "weaker" flank.

So… I thought Jiraiya was much older in the series. As in… 10 years older. So here he is about 48-50 rather than 38-40 (which would be his actual age by this time).

Right, so… Obito and Rin were the same age, and I'm making Kakashi younger for it to fit my very odd reasoning and distorted timeline of the manga events (No, seriously, look at their Ninja Registration Numbers. Kakashi must have graduated in a different year, there's 1165 people between them. Look at Narutopedia if you don't have the databooks) . Nine-year-old Rin still lived with her parents, and seven-year-old Kakashi has one year of awkward-not-so-innocent-childhood before Sakumo kills himself, so he too was living at his own house at the time. And this is Minato, so of course he takes the little genius and the only girl of his team to their homes.

Yes, there were 27 people in that compartment. Imagine that it's very, very large and remember that there should be 24 Prefects in total. Since all the prefects are supposed to travel together for a part of the trip, that makes 24, plus three shinobi. Sigh. Things in the Hogwarts Express make no sense.

Well… damn. I had written the whole Hogsmade-Hogwarts part… then I remembered Hagrid wasn't there. I felt _so_ stupid. If you see a mistake where it says "he" instead of "she" or something of the sort, please tell me ASAP! That way it looks less ridiculous.

'Bout the ANBU tattoo, from what I understand/remember/have seen, females wear it on their right shoulder and males on their left. Correct me if I'm wrong?

Oh, yeah, by the way, I do refer to Kakashi as both "grey-haired" and "silver-haired". Is there any you prefer or are you fine with me changing it when I please?

The painting "The Scream" obviously doesn't belong to me.


	3. Of Kives and Pens

Sorry that I don't write the names of those who reviewed this time. I'm kind of in a hurry. Hopefully, 19 pages in word will be enough to make up for the long time I was gone.

* * *

Of Knives and Pens

_All your life you had to stand in line.__  
__Still you're standing on your feet._  
**Billy Joel-Don't Ask Me Why**

Morning found Minato lazily getting up from bed. He yawned as he looked around trying to figure out what time it was, only stopping when he saw the small analog clock on his bedside table marking six a.m. The blond got up from the mattress, pulling the black blankets with him, and wrapped them around his shoulders to protect himself from the chilly air that seemed to be following him since the night before.

He put on the sandals he guiltily remembered not taking off in front of the entrance to his team's quarters due to the cold he feared would attack his bare feet if he did, and walked out of his room.

The door leading to Rin's room was already wide open, and upon further inspection the man discovered the young woman was not in there anymore. Minato grinned, happy he didn't have to wake the girl up, and slowly made his way to the other side of the small lobby that gave access to their rooms.

Tentatively pushing open the door of the last bedroom, the man's sapphire eyes met with Kakashi's back. The boy was sitting cross-legged on the carpeted floor, leaning to the front in what seemed to be a very awkward stretching exercise.

"_Kakashi?"_ The blond gave a step into the room, raising an eyebrow at his former student's pose.

The grey-haired ANBU turned his head towards him, looking completely calm and much better than what he had the night before. And soon Minato met the reason for the teen's supposed stretching. A small puppy poked its head out of the safety of Kakashi's lap, looking at him with eyes that were both calculating and adorably innocent at the same time, and the blond was reminded of a much younger Kakashi listening to his lectures.

The teen observed how Minato opened his mouth to say something before closing it, a clear look of bewilderment taking over the sleepy features of his face. Deciding to help, Kakashi collected the puppy into his arms and slowly got up from the floor.

"_He's Pakkun."_ The youth said, as if it explained everything. Noticing that the puzzled expression didn't disappear from his squad leader's posture—or face, for that matter— Kakashi elaborated further _"I made a contract with him a few months ago, but I hadn't had the chance to train him."_

Minato could only groan. _"You shouldn't be summoning anything right now."_

But the boy was no longer looking at him, his attention was focused on the small brown pug, which was in turn looking up at the youth, its jaw moving fast. Kakashi's dark eye focused back on the blond, the trace of a sly smile visible through the mask. That is, visible if you had known the boy for as long as he had. The blond's eyes widened slightly at the evident show of emotion, still unused to them.

"_You're right, Pakkun. He is weird."_

Minato walked into the room and closed the door behind him, noticing that because of the lit fire, that space was much warmer than the lobby. Still hugging the blankets close to himself, the man walked over to the boy slowly, examining the dog.

"_Isn't he too young to talk?"_ He asked, ignoring the insult against him.

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders, allowing the pug to jump from his arms to the neatly made bed _"He knows a few wor—"_ A hand pressing lightly to his forehead made him shut his mouth, and he trembled at the cold skin grazing his own.

Mumbled words from the older male soon led to a warm hug. _"Are you sure you're feeling okay?"_ Kakashi felt more than heard the words. He pressed his head closer to the blond's chest. _"Rin and I can handle it for today, you know…"_

The teen suddenly let go of the man and looked down when he heard the pup at his feet, growling at the blond_. "He's not going to hurt us, Pakkun."_ Kakashi raised his gaze to meet the sapphire eyes that didn't seem sure whether to express concern for him or to brush it off and smile at the little pug _"I have a headache, but it's nothing. I'm fine."_

Nodding, Minato threw him one last concerned look before sighing. He shivered and gave a frustrated whimper at having to get out of his warm cocoon to get into the cold ANBU uniform. _"I'm going to see if Rin isn't hogging the bathroom."_

Kakashi nodded, tentatively sitting in the floor once more. His rapt attention went back to the dog that couldn't be more than a year old, repeating commands slowly and explaining what he expected at the order.

"_You need to bathe too, you know."_

The boy looked up at him with a slight frown _"I'm busy."_

Minato chuckled, bending down to be on level with the younger male _"You smell, baby."_ He leaned to kiss the boy's hair before the youngster could do anything about it and got up, quickly jogging to the door and leaving his blanket on the floor. _"Remember, be in that weird dining hall at seven."_

Hearing the door close, Kakashi looked at the mess of blankets the blond had just left behind and gave a frustrated sigh, deciding he would later drag the man to the room and threaten him until he picked up his things instead of doing it himself.

He picked up Pakkun from the new hiding place the dog had found amidst the blankets contaminating the boy's floor, placing the pup in front of him once more. Kakashi spent the next fifty minutes teaching the puppy more commands, teaching the puppy more words that couldn't be used in its young, awkward sentence structure, trying for the puppy not to jump into the blankets like they were a pile of leaves, and taking the puppy's sharp teeth off his mask when the animal tried to pull it down.

In the end, Kakashi just sighed and decided that training Kuma, his other dog summon, had been many times easier, but as he walked towards the bathroom with Pakkun in tow, he did admit to himself that he had been his father's dog first.

Kakashi ordered the pup to stay in front of the stairs, and when it seemed like it was going to obey his command, he scurried off to the bathroom, which was still warm from its previous users despite both of them being long gone. The boy touched the water that was still in the deep tub, testing its temperature. Satisfied, he rid himself of his clothes and braced himself for the sharp stinging that would attack all of his new wounds the moment the water touched him.

**&%&%&%&%&%&**

Three pairs of feet walked down the hall. One irritably, the other two a little calmer and lagging behind. After the owners of the two calmer pairs spoke, the other finally slowed down slightly.

"Well, I think it's a pity we're not trying for a bit of inter-house unity," The girl said, looking over at the two boys.

But the inter-house unity turned out to end right before it started when a group of teens with blue adorning the black of their uniforms looked at the green-eyed boy with fear before cowering and rushing for the large wooden doors that led to the Great Hall.

The boy-who-lived made a sarcastic comment under his breath and led the way into the Hall. Harry stopped suddenly, causing his friends to run into him.

"'Sup, mate?"

Harry took a second to make sure he wasn't seeing things and pointed to someone standing near the High Table. "That one's blond."

Hermione looked over to see the blond guard and raised her eyebrows at her friend. "Yes," When the teen didn't say anything else, but didn't make to keep on walking, she continued "so?"

The green-eyed boy took another second to gather his thoughts, then turned to look behind him and pointed at another person standing by the door. "That one's blond, too."

Both Ron and Hermione spun around only to see that no, their friend was not going crazy. Another blond, wearing the exact same hairstyle and mask was standing there, too.

The girl stared for a second, but was quick to push both of her friends towards their table when she noticed the man was now looking at them. They sat down near the teacher table, the rest of the long piece of furniture being occupied by their housemates, and did their best not to look at the man standing in front of them as they began eating.

Harry grimaced. "Dumbledore didn't say when Hagrid was going to come back."

Ron said something, but it was incomprehensible as bits of food came out from his mouth. Toad shifted to lean his whole weight on his right leg and turned his face away.

"That's gross, Ronald." Whispered Hermione before leaning in a bit closer to Harry. "Maybe he didn't want to draw attention to Hagrid not being here."

"Haw c'ud wee nt nticd?"

The bushy-haired girl made a disgusted face at her friend's eating habits and opened her mouth to reply to what she thought his question was when a cloud of smoke appeared before them with an almost silent _poof_.

The display had attracted the attention of many other students, and even a couple of teachers had gotten up from their seats and had drawn out their wands for cautionary measures. Neither of the guards moved even an inch. When the smoke cleared, it revealed the missing guard, wolf mask firmly in place and holding a small dog that promptly leaped to the ground. The silence the hall had fallen into was broken by Toad.

"_You're… late."_

The youth tilted his face to the right, the older male noticing the almost invisible cringe the motion resulted in. The boy took a look around the silent room. _"Pakkun wanted to bathe, too, see."_

There was a second of silence before a flat _"Right."_ came out from both of the blondes' directions before the one directly in front of the silver-haired guard disappeared.

The short male took over the place the disappeared blond had been standing on; looking over at the table of teachers to silently indicate everything was fine with his hand. The adults slowly and distrustfully put their wands away, following Dumbledore's example of appearing completely comfortable with the events.

The students, on the other hand, began a round of what they probably thought was very silent chattering about the foreigners, though even the untrained Pakkun whined at the loud voices and moved next to Wolf, wordlessly glaring daggers at his pack leader for bringing him somewhere so annoying for his very first mission.

"_Really, Pakkun, this is good training."_ When the puppy's look did not lose its edge, Kakashi resisted the urge to smirk _"It's also punishment. I told you not to go into the bathroom, but you st—."_

"—Impossible. No one can **Apparate** inside the castle!"

Kakashi stopped when he heard the commotion in front of him. He looked over, noticing the main charge and his friends giving him and his former teacher odd glances, then shifted briefly to Rin and then back at him. He didn't move, but added the foreign, unknown word into the repertoire of questions his team had for Dumbledore.

Instead, Wolf simply settled back into the wall of stone behind him, eyeing the food on the table with apprehension. He never did want to try something like that again. He looked down at Pakkun, smirking lightly when he saw the small puppy give a sleepy whine and press against his foot.

After a couple of minutes of his attention being divided between mindless chatter from the students, the feeling that his head was close to exploding, and Pakkun's head drooping at his feet when the ninken got too tired, Kakashi finally took pity on the poor animal and picked him up, scratching him behind the ears.

He contemplated Pakkun would need an identifying mark on him as the woman in green of the day before began to hand out small pieces of paper to each of the students in the table closer to him. He noticed with slight interest how she spared him a glance when she gave the slips to the trio of friends sitting right across from where he was standing.

Suddenly, everyone was moving. Wolf waited until the hall was mostly clear before walking over to his teammates, masking the pain that was ripping his head apart with a laid-back stance. Shrike's jagged breaths were easy to hear even with the distance that their heights put between his ear and her mouth. He grimaced while he watched their blond team leader slowly approached them.

"_Be quiet or the enemy will kill you."_ He whispered.

To her credit, the girl didn't flinch at his cold remark, but she did stand up a bit straighter and attempted to take longer, neater intakes of air.

The Toad ANBU took a hold of their shoulders when he got to finally stand in front of them. It was a light hold, as if to remind them both that he was still there, but he let the warm contact end almost immediately, hands falling to his sides.

"_I have clones on most classes right now."_ The man started, his face turning away from them slightly to look at the teachers, who were leaving the room by the door close to their table, then returned his hidden gaze to them_. "But there are a few teachers we need to watch a bit more closely. Umbridge-san from yesterday, and also…"_ He paused for a second looking up at the enchanted ceiling, then petted the puppy in Wolf's arms._ "Right. Snape-san, the man in all black? Anyway, I've heard some children complain about a class that is outside, so I'll save you two from the cold and keep an eye on that one. You two decide which class you want."_

"I'll take Umbridge-san. She doesn't seem that nice, but she should be better than a grumpy man." Shrike said, grinning at the youngest male from behind her mask.

Kakashi rolled his visible eye, the girl was breathing hard again. He nodded, however, accepting the layout. For some reason he couldn't quite place, the boy had the vague idea that Umbridge was safer than Snape at the moment, and he simply could not bear to think of losing another of his teammates just for childish arguments.

Seeing the nod of his teammates, Wolf quickly disappeared to find someone to follow to the classroom. Just his luck, he found Snape himself, and the teen was quick to follow the man through stony corridors.

The boy cringed the second he entered the classroom, and he felt Pakkun attempting to shove his tiny head into his chest in an attempt to escape from the unbelievably foul smell that attacked their noses. The room smelled like rotten eggs, burnt flesh, along with some other things that he couldn't quite identify, and for once was glad he couldn't. The odor made Wolf want to hold his head and simply leave, it was really making his headache worse.

Of course, he couldn't just do that, and the young ANBU valiantly walked until he was standing in the corner of the room, almost completely shrouded in the shadows, a suddenly slumbering puppy in his arms. He too would have slept if that would save him from this torture, but he knew all too well that he wouldn't even be able to close his eyes with the pestilence. He noticed the teacher give him a look that would have probably made most of the kids tremble, one that would usually make the young prodigy smirk, though with his headache he only managed to look directly at him, letting his porcelain mask do its job.

The first two hours were more of a torture to Wolf's nose than it was for the young children who simply looked absolutely lost as to what they were supposed to do under the scrutinizing gaze of their teacher and the apparently threatening presence of the ANBU. For the third hour, the teen was able to get both himself and Pakkun some fresh air before they went back to the poisonous, windowless chamber.

"Before we begin today's lesson," Snape finally said, his glare switching from the unwanted guard to his own students "I think it appropriate to remind you that next June you will be sitting an important examination, during which you will prove how much you have learned about the composition and use of magical potions."

Despite just standing there _holding a puppy, _most of the teenagers in the class were looking at Wolf instead of their teacher, which in turn provoked Snape into virtually barking at their students or, the ANBU guessed _would have_ been virtually barking if the man ever opened his mouth instead of talking through his teeth.

The boy shifted. Despite not looking like it, he was listening very closely to the words the oldest male spoke to the children. In the best of cases, he could later laugh along with his team at just how frightened some of the students were, and in the worst scenario, he hoped any kind of information could be used against the man.

Just a shadowy, silent presence that disappeared from their minds after a while, Kakashi's voice startled them as it rang loud and clear in the silent room at the end of the first hour.

"That girl's pot is on fire."

Snape looked over, his jaw clenched tight and prepared to berate the shinobi for speaking while people were working when he saw the cyan-pink flames that a girl from his own house had created and was now attempting to put it out. He silenced the Gryffindor's quiet chuckles with a glare before putting out the fire and emptying the cauldron, sneering at the guilty student.

"Start over." Snape said, then proceeded to look into Neville's cauldron and humiliate him to take the focus away from the previous incident.

For the second hour, Kakashi walked around the room in an attempt to clear his head and trick his other senses into pretending he wasn't fundamentally choking with every breath he drew in. It wasn't until he attempted to read the blackboard while inspecting the several vials scattered around the teacher's table that he noticed his vision was blurry around the edges.

Waking up Pakkun, he left the small pug on the floor and told him to stay put for a few seconds, then scurried out of the classroom and closed the door behind him. He breathed in the clean, cool air of the dungeons, immediately feeling his own head stop spinning. Well, choosing to guard Snape's class hadn't been such a good idea.

Wolf took a couple of minutes to cleanse his lungs from the damaging smoke and then went back inside, this time leaving Pakkun outside for the last few minutes while he kept an eye on the students. It was only when the youngster had the training ninken back in his arms that he heard Snape criticizing the Potter boy's potion, and he curiously looked around the room, noting the many other failures that seemed to be ten times more threatening than that one.

When everyone began moving around their desks and towards the teacher, Wolf made sure he had a secure hold on his dog before darting through the door as quietly as possible. He went around the several floors and hallways, Pakkun excitedly looking over his arms, until he found the room he was looking for. Several groaning children were coming out of a classroom, his female teammate leaning on a nearby wall, and looking at the first years through her expressionless mask.

In this floor, the walls had big arches that led outside, and allowed the rain from the sudden storm to slam against the students walking down the corridor. He tried to call Rin's attention with an arm, but she seemed unfocused.

He stood in front of her, straightening up as much as he could when he saw, not for the first time in the last couple of months, since the girl _had_ been growing like something akin to weed, her head tilt downwards to look at him. With her shoulders slumped like that, she looked kind of miserable.

"_Did something happen?"_ Wolf asked above the noise of the rain, ignoring the children giving them both awed and frightened looks.

She shook her head. _"Not really. Umbridge-san is just… Well, I think Obito would be planning a prank against her if he could."_

Wolf looked the other way, shifting his weight to his left leg and then finally looking up at Shrike. _"Switch classes with me. The smell of Snape-san's classroom won't be as bad for you as it is for us. I can deal with Umbridge-san"_

"_Really?!"_ Even with her face hidden away, Wolf could easily imagine the delightedness of Rin's eyes at his words. Had he really misjudged the woman that badly? She seemed like an idiot, sure, but not much of a threat. Then again, he hardly heard her the previous night, and he had been too preoccupied with his own head almost imploding to check her over in the mess hall.

The grey-haired youth shrugged, nodding his head. Noticing Pakkun seemed to be a bit more awake and energetic than what he had been earlier; he placed the pug on the ground before turning back to Shrike, quietly explaining how to get to the classroom in the dungeons. _"The students have lunch right now, from what I heard, so we'll switch after that."_

He pretended not to notice the chakra-covered hand that touched his bare bicep, and he most definitely pretended not to hear the disapproval in Shrike's voice when she told him to stop doing things that would cause a relapse of his illness as the older teen attempted to shake the moist out of his grey hair.

Kakashi rolled his eye and vaguely signaled the hallway, smiling slyly when the girl actually _huffed _as she pushed past him. Watching her move fluidly down the hall, the boy focused on his puppy, who was looking up at him questioningly. Though the rain seemed to have woken Pakkun up, he didn't seem particularly amused.

"_Come on. Let's work on your speed for now."_ The boy said before jogging away at a much slower pace than what he was capable of. He knew Pakkun would struggle, being so tiny and young, but training for a ninken had to start early if the shinobi wanted to develop their companion's abilities to the fullest. Of course, having so much trouble with Pakkun, Kakashi doubted he would attempt to make a contract with a newborn dog ever again.

By the time the pair reached the Great Hall, Pakkun was whining as loud as his lungs would allow, a stiff, uncoordinated paw trying to gain the attention of his master with awkward taps on the teen's sandals. The pug was tired, wet, and sleepy, and Kakashi would be lying if he said he didn't feel the same way.

Just as the young ANBU was picking up his ninken, a shadow surrounded them, stopping the rain from hitting them. Kunai in hand, Kakashi turned around, ready to fight off the threat (for that is what it was, if it had managed to sneak up on him), only to stop mid spin as his gaze met with a familiar face grinning at him.

"_Hey you."_ At Wolf's stunned silence, Minato grinned even wider. _"Rin thought you were taking too long, and since I was in the room getting this,"_ He moved his arms, signaling the cloth that was covering them from the rain _"I thought I wouldn't need my mask to come get you. My clones are taking care of lunch time. We have to eat something, too. I think the trip here is still affecting us all."_

Kakashi was quick to recognize the white cloak that identified the blue-eyed man as an ANBU leader, his gaze quickly settling on the Toad mask tied to the older male's hip. The blond hair was dripping wet from being under the rain for two hours, but the man seemed to have gotten used to the cold, for he showed no discomfort.

Pakkun, on the other hand, looked excited to see another familiar face; one that had previously been nice to him and hadn't made him run all over the castle. He barked happily at the man, and stood on his hind legs as Minato tied his ANBU mask in place.

Sighing at the dog's attitude, the teenager grabbed the ninja hound in his arm and stood up, Minato following suit. The man collected his cloak from over their heads and wrapped it around his shoulders. He then motioned for the hall with his hand, almost mocking the way he had signaled to Rin earlier even though he was sure the man _had not _been there. Still, Kakashi walked.

"_So,"_ The man began a few seconds after turning into a hall that was not open to the outside. _"I was thinking about what you said. And you're right, you know, the boy is almost here and…" _His voice faltered, but he took a piece of paper out of his pocket and gave it to the boy, looking tenser by the second.

While Kakashi utterly feared what was written inside, he handed Pakkun to the man— mostly out of caution, in case whatever was inside would endanger the safety of his arms— and unfolded the crumpled sheet. Whatever the teen had been expecting, it wasn't that. Written in oddly neat characters, which was a feat in itself for the bond, were several names for boys.

He turned to look at the older male, eyes questioning. He knew most people wouldn't be able to tell, but he also knew Minato could read him like a book whenever he wasn't trying to be goofy.

"_Is this…?"_ At the other's nod, his attention was back on the list reading over it carefully. Though the names were… Different, Kakashi couldn't say he expected any less from his former teacher. Not that he had anything to say about the matter, being named after a scarecrow. Dai, Konran, Son, Are, Arashi, Maki… _"Naruto as in—"_

"_Yeah." _He could hear the Namikaze's smile in his voice, and even though he had a list, Kakashi knew what the man's final choice was going to be. _"I'll have to show them to Kushina and see what she thinks, of course, but… I… kind of wanted your opinion."_

"_Naruto works best."_ And it did. Not only it showed some ties to the origins of Kushina, but it was also the name of Jiraiya's main character. The true main character, not those others he used for later novels.

By the ecstatic hug he received, Kakashi knew he had given the correct answer. He tried not to groan at the sudden movement, but he knew the man had noticed the stiffness of his body. Despite himself, Kakashi looked around to see if no students could see them.

Pakkun had looked interested in the conversation up until the point he was almost crushed, and after that he struggled in the blond's arms until he was handed back to his master.

Their headquarters were quiet, Rin simply sitting on the floor reading through a letter, her half-eaten meal almost forgotten on the table behind her. She looked up as the two males were taking off their masks, and she smiled, extending the yellowish paper towards them.

"_It's from Jiraiya-sama! He says he's coming every two weeks to pick up the mission reports." _For someone who had not spent all that much time with the man, Rin seemed very eager about the prospect. _"And Sensei, Dumbledore said he would answer our questions later tonight, after dinner."_

Kakashi barely noticed the oldest of the group give a relieved nod and take the letter from Rin's hand before he settled down on the floor, taking one of the sides of the squared table and letting Pakkun sniff around until the dog seemed content to curl up next to the young woman.

While he served himself some of the food that had been clearly prepared specifically for them, Kakashi unbuckled his tantō from around his torso, letting it fall unceremoniously to the carpeted section of the floor. The male teen needed an excessive amount of focus to simply not spill half his food over the table with that stupid, shaking hand of his, and so was taken by surprise when Rin's giggles cut through the comfortable silence the trio had fallen into.

The boy looked up from his plate to look at the girl, but his gunmetal-colored eye was quick to focus on Minato's seething form. The squad-leader held Jiraiya's letter still, long fingers clearly struggling to restrain themselves from ripping the whole thing to shreds, if the bright flush of his face was anything to guess from.

Due to Rin's incessant giggling, Kakashi knew there was something wholly inappropriate written there. So he did what every mature shinobi would do: as fast as his stiff, feverish body would allow him, he leaned across the table and took the missive out of the older male's grip, unable to suppress the sly smile when he read Jiraiya's message for his former teacher.

"_That's not bad advice."_

"_Shut it, you scamps. It's not a nice joke to make!"_

The man's scolding, along with the bright red skin adorning his face only made Rin's giggling transform into full-blown laughter, while Kakashi tried not to snigger with all his might, for he knew his headache would only get worse if he did. Instead, the youngster handed the piece of scroll back to the man, who in turn snatched it out of his grasp.

After a few minutes, the girl left them alone to go to the bathroom, much to Pakkun's dismay. The silver-haired ANBU didn't stop eating, even when his former sensei did, but he did look up when he noticed Minato's eyes didn't waver from him.

"_I actually thought you didn't like this kind of jokes, Kakashi."_ There was a whine to the man's voice that made the boy's smile widen. Really, while Minato was usually calm and composed, he was the only person he knew that would act like a child when he was expecting his own child soon.

"_They're fine if they're not about me."_

"_Meanie." _Okay. That he had gotten from Kushina.

While it was virtually impossible for a body to be warm after spending a hundred-and-twenty minutes out in the rain in a rather icy weather, Minato somehow managed, Kakashi discovered. The boy suddenly found himself surrounded by a snug cocoon that counteracted the chilly effects his fever had had on his skin for the past week.

Out of the corner of his eye, the younger male could see Pakkun watching them with intrigued curiosity, but he could not bring himself to make a sarcastic comment at the pug's tilted head. Not when he was that comfortable. He knew, of course, that this was all a dirty tactic so he would sleep and the medic of the team could make another overdue check-up; however, his already heavy eyelids were granted the weight of lead when the man's neck pressed against his nose and mouth over the thin fabric that hid half his face, lulling him with the rhythm of the pumping blood.

"_I'll wake you up when we have to leave, Kashi."_

**&%&%&%&%&**

"_He's not taking any night shifts for a little while, sensei."_ Rin said as the gentle, green chakra disappeared from her hand _"He shouldn't have summoned his hound."_

Minato, of course, didn't need to be told that. He simply sighed and smiled a little at the fact Kakashi had eaten all of his food before he had to take such a drastic measure for him to be compliant to for his medical examination. _"Well… yeah. But you know how he is. We'd have to chain him to a wall a few meters off the ground for him to actually do what he has to for him to get better medically. Or drug him."_

The girl shrugged, smiling kindly at him before moving to pick up all the dirty plates and stash them in a semi-neat pile. Usually, that was Minato's job as the oldest, but seeing how he was trapped under ninety-nine pounds of stubbornness and fever, Rin shouldered the task.

"_You seem to manage well enough without the chains or the drugs, sensei."_

The man returned the smile, adjusting his position so he could still enjoy his meal despite the teen resting against his chest. _"That's only because he was so tired already."_

"_No. You always could get away with things Obito and I couldn't, even if it was touching his shoulder."_

Minato shifted once more when Pakkun decided to use him and Kakashi as a bed, making sure the pup wouldn't fall down and hurt himself. He then shrugged at Rin's comment, not knowing what to say. Up until a few months earlier, the man had always attributed that to the boy simply knowing him longer, being there when his father took his own life.

They finished eating quietly. Minato then used the reverse of Jiraiya's scroll to write a reply, along with a specific, sealed section directed at Kushina for her to see the his ideas for a name.

"_How did this get here anyway?"_ The blond asked, waving the letter high in the air for Rin to see from the other side of the room, where she was sorting out some weapons.

"_Oh. Some…thing brought it. Just leave it on the table."_

Furrowing his eyebrows, the squad leader did as he was told. Gently squeezing Kakashi's arm, he leaned down to whisper that it was time to wake up, then rubbed the teen's back to ease the transition from the world of dreams to the real one, something the boy had always had trouble with.

Although he seemed groggy when he opened his eyes, the boy clearly looked more rested than before, the darkness under his eyes having disappeared somewhat.

Once everyone got up and was ready to move, Minato with his white cloak securely around his shoulders, the deep hood covering his bright hair from view, they made sure each of them knew where the others were going. The teens informed the adult of the change in their positions and everyone went their own way.

The first thought Wolf had about Umbridge was that the woman was extremely annoying. The students simply seemed to find her boring, and the ANBU hoped the dullness of the class and the squeakiness of the teacher's voice would diminish when she got older students.

Granted, every time Wolf wished for things to go better, they often went worse.

He saw Harry Potter walk into the class and mentally groaned. It was obvious the boy didn't have that good of a relationship with the teachers. Umbridge had that horribly fake smile that hurt his sole uncovered eye even more than the harsh tone of pink of her clothes, and Wolf didn't miss the dirty look thrown his way before the eerily silent children settled down on their seats.

Wolf watched, mostly with impolite disinterest, how the woman guided the fifteen-year-olds through a quick-learn course of Umbridge-approved greetings and answer formats before ordering them all to read their assigned textbook.

Only to have bushy-hairs raise her hand in something that was clearly not a question from the assigned reading. Great.

Honestly, though, Wolf was quite amused when the girl did not lower her hand for forty-five whole minutes, causing the rest of the class to stare at her. Even little Pakkun was looking over at her, tiny head tilted to the side in an unspoken question.

"Did you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" Umbridge finally asked Hermione.

The girl's gaze quickly traveled to the guard in a nervous tick before she returned the defiant gaze towards the teacher "Not about the chapter, no."

'_Damn it, girl. And you looked like the smart one out of them.' _Wolf found himself thinking as adult and child kept challenging each other.

"Using defensive spells?" The laugh that followed made Pakkun give a step back towards his master. "Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"

Even to Wolf, who didn't know much about this world _nor_ classrooms, such a thing sounded ridiculous. What is learnt in the classroom is meant to aid the students once they leave the academic institution. He didn't know how these people fought, but spells did seem to be an important part of their repertoire. As the discussion progressed, more people joining in to throw their opinions, Wolf simply repeated to himself that he could not imagine little academy brats just learning the theory of a Replacement Technique instead of practicing it until mastery or at least a basic degree of control. If they didn't they would be killed.

Approaching war or not, surely these kids were right to question such method of learning.

Then the stupid Potter boy asked the question that plagued his mind.

"There is nothing waiting out there, Mr. Potter."

Wolf thought there didn't need to be. Not really. But the intelligent light that had illuminated the teen for that one question obviously abandoned him as he responded with an obtuse 'oh, yeah?' followed by the name of the person the ANBU and his team were there to protect the boy from.

The reaction made the thirteen-year-old blister. Little screams, gasps, flinches and pale faces were the response to the simple word. A simple, _harmless_ word. These people thought they were getting ready for a war?! Umbridge seemed morbidly satisfied with the thick-headed response Harry had given.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter. Now, let me make a few things quite plain." The woman leaned over her desk in a clearly threatening stance, and Wolf felt his muscles tense and lock in tightly in anticipation. Perhaps Toad was correct and Umbridge was a threat.

But it was clear the witch did not wish to bodily harm the boy, and when that was noticed by the students, Harry once again jumped to the attack with a stubbornness that landed him in detention.

Wolf could only roll his eyes at that. Even Obito knew when to stop when it came to teachers. He had seen him once when he had graduated and the Uchiha was still in the academy. Minato, still his sensei at the time, had been asked to deliver a message to a chuunin that worked at the academy as a small favor, and Kakashi had been dragged along before their mission. He could clearly remember Obito's comments to the teacher about his lesson, and had watched how the moment he knew the man was not going to take any more crap, the older boy had leaned back and resumed his work while a nineteen-year-old Minato picked him up to flicker them out of the room.

"…Dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. And now, you will kindly continue your reading. Page five, 'Basics for Beginners'."

The black haired teen stood up. And this time, Kakashi did groan. He saw the three kids closer to him turn to him in surprise, as if they had forgotten he was even there. With the attention span these people had been showing, it wouldn't surprise him.

'_Just sit down, Potter.'_

The boy showed he was not a mind reader when he opened his mouth for a shaky retort to come out. "So according to you Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?"

Kakashi knew about the Diggory kid. It had been part of the explanation Dumbledore and the Third had given his team as an explanation of why they were needed. Quietly, he looked over at Pakkun. The puppy was absorbing everything with an odd expression of understanding, even though it had never really listened to the language before. Perhaps the hound could understand languages on instinct?

"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident."

"It was murder. Voldemort killed him and yo—" Suddenly Harry found a gloved hand covering his mouth. His eyes widened and he turned just slightly to see the grey-haired guard, shorter than him by a whole head, looking at him. A feeling of intense fear ran through him for a second before suddenly stopping. He didn't feel like continuing his argument with Umbridge. The guard must have sensed it, because he took his hand away slowly.

"Come here, Mr. Potter, dear." The voice of the woman was no longer deliberately cold, instead replaced by a soft, girlish tone Kakashi hoped he never had to hear on Rin.

Still startled by the fast intrusion from the guard that had left all of the class looking at the masked male rather than him, Harry walked over to the teacher's desk, where Umbridge had begun to write something on a piece of pink parchment. Despite the angry scribbles, she was not looking at her own hands, but glaring at the short, silver-haired man.

She gave him instructions of what to do and Harry strode over to the door, only to have the guard stop him by the arm. Wolf hesitated. He knew he was going to regret this, but he bit the thumb of his free hand and slammed it on the floor, murmuring a few words.

A cloud of smoke was cleared by a big, brown hound that looked like an odd breed of a Labrador and a Rottweiler. The canine looked around the classroom sharply, a growl escaping the back of its throat. Its gaze stopped on Umbridge, who looked livid and was pointing a finger to Kakashi, and stopped, looking back at the boys.

"_You only call me when there's danger, pup. What is it right now?"_ The whole class gasped and stared at the clearly female, though gruff, voice that the dog had produced.

Kakashi could swear the room tilted to the side, then swayed before stopping. His gaze fell in the face of his father's summon. _"Nothing much, Kuma. I have to leave this room, but I need you to guard it. Maybe teach Pakkun a few things. Keep him out of trouble. When the kids start to leave, take Pakkun and find me, will you?"_

The dog nodded, and Wolf turned around.

"Wait!" Called Umbridge. Wolf looked over. The woman was now walking towards him in a complete change of her sweet-girl charade. She pointed a stubby finger at his face and motioned at the two newly growling dogs with her other hand. "I order you to take these beasts with you!"

Despite the horrible feeling of nausea that had once again washed over him, Kakashi held his ground, pulling himself to his full height so he could stand above the woman even if it was just slightly. "I outrank you, and therefore, will heed no orders from you."

The woman shivered with fury. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before words finally tumbled out of her mouth "You sound like nothing but a child. How dare you even think tha—"

"Whatever age I might or might not be, the fact remains that I hold more power than you could ever imagine. I'll leave my hounds here." Kakashi didn't know where he got the strength to do so, but he nodded at Kuma and pulled Harry out of the door and down the corridor before the witch could reply.

Only when they were a safe distance from the room did Wolf let go of the green-eyed youth's arm. Though Harry looked at him several times, the ANBU did not sway from his strategic position at his back. The cold Kakashi felt was becoming truly unbearable, and he could feel both the heat that was racing to his cheeks and the debilitating force of a fever grabbing at his muscles.

Once Potter was safely inside McGonagall's office, her invitation for him to join them declined with a shake of his head, he walked over to a spot on the hall that looked hidden enough from view. Although he knew, in the back of his mind, that he had just enough strength to get to his own room, he couldn't bring his body up to par. He closed his eyes as he heard a thunder break the sky.

When he opened them, the first thing he saw was Minato's Toad mask, his blond hair uncovered. He could feel the man's hands holding his head, and could barely make out the sound of his concerned voice through the static of his brain. He was asking him if he was okay, where it hurt, what had happened. He then heard a distinctive bark that sounded a lot like his name. Minato's tone transformed to a disbelieving one when the big dog arrived at their side with the little pug hanging from the neck between her teeth.

"_You summoned _again_? Dammit, Kakashi!"_ When the man used his real name instead of his codename, the youth knew, vaguely, for he was having a lot of trouble with the knowing of a lot of things at the moment, how angry the blond really was.

Kakashi could feel himself being picked up and did not struggle. With his face tucked between Minato's shoulder and neck, the boy had little to no idea of what was going on around him. He could feel movement, faintly hear voices, but he had no real intel of his surroundings.

Minato flickered to the door of their headquarters—having discovered earlier that day that he couldn't get inside for some reason— and quickly gave the password before running inside the room, up the stairs and into the small teen's room. He deposited Kakashi on the bed, untying his mask and feeling the warmth of the boy's skin returning. Cursing under his breath, he unclasped the ANBU chest armor and proceeded to remove the tight shirt from the boy's torso. Not knowing what else to do, he removed the rest of the boy's armor while his clone arrived with Rin.

In reality, the older male knew the young woman had only taken less than two minutes to get there, but to him it had felt as if an hour of raw panic had gone by. She sat down on the other side of Kakashi's body and took out a pill from a small container. The whole thing looked like a tiny, transparent plastic bag with dark blue liquid inside, causing a peculiar effect of the color floating in mid-air.

While the man watched, the girl gently lifted the Hatake's head from his pillow and carefully forced the capsule into his mouth. When the boy whimpered at the taste, she squeezed his bare shoulder and shushed him. Once Rin was sure the pill was no longer on her teammate's mouth, she took off his hitai-ate and held her thumb to his forehead.

"_Don't fight it." _A tender flow of chakra was transferred, and both healthy shinobi observed how the boy slowly fell asleep. Rin breathed a sigh of relief.

"_Was that a soldier pill?"_ Minato asked a few minutes later, Rin now sitting on a chair next to the bed while the blond sat on the mattress next to the younger male, his hand holding the other's tightly. Both dogs were resting in a far corner of the room.

Rin shook her head _"Not exactly. Soldier pills are temporary solutions and give raw energy. After being on the same team with Kakashi and Obito for so long, I realized they kind of needed something else, so I created these."_ She handed him a flask full of the blue pills. _"They make the user lethargic and increase the production of chakra. Of course being asleep helps even more so I…"_ She vaguely motioned to Kakashi's unmoving form_. "I didn't use them on him before because they're still a prototype. I was going to test them on myself first. His chakra levels were so low that I had to, though."_

Nodding, Minato handed the pills back to the girl, who placed it right back into one of her two hip pouches. The man couldn't help the proud grin that took over his features at seeing his student, once a shy little girl and then a rather insecure pre-teen, advance like she was doing. He was happy for Kakashi, too, despite the headaches the young man managed to give him sometimes. Obito had earned the biggest prize on that sense, however; the boy had grown up the fastest and had never wavered.

By the time Minato noticed, one of his clones had just dissipated, getting him some information about the quarters all of the students lived in. As he went through the clone's memories, he looked at Rin, confused.

"_These people have interesting interior decorating ideas."_

Having been watching the grounds, or at least pretending to because Minato had no idea how she could see anything with the rain falling and hitting the window in an impressive cascade, the girl looked down to smile at him before jumping down. She took off her glove and felt Kakashi's forehead with the back of her hand.

Brows furrowing at the female's expression, the blond let go of the boy's hand, placing his knuckles against the other male's solar plexus. Though it was usually formed in the stomach, teens' chakra was most easily felt in that spot, while adults' were stronger around the heart, throat, or forehead and older people's was often easily detected in the top of the head. Minato couldn't feel all that much chakra, but the heat his own network received was enough to tell him Kakashi was in a rather fast way to healing.

"_Is something not working right?"_

Startled out of her thoughts, Rin shook her head. She made a meek attempt to comb Kakashi's hair into more-or-less acceptable neatness and sighed, finally looking back to the pair of dogs resting on the floor. Pakkun was sleeping soundly by the heat the bigger dog provided, but Kuma was looking at her summoner intently.

"_You shouldn't worry. Kakashi-kun is going to be just fine. He just needs rest. He shouldn't skip dinner either."_

The dog looked at the girl warily and refused to nod at her. She hadn't been given all of the details, and Pakkun had managed to make a mess of things when trying to explain, but that didn't change the fact that her original pack leader's puppy was in bed with two obviously worried teammates surrounding him. Kuma got up from the floor after making sure Pakkun wouldn't wake up and jumped on the bed, settling herself between the blond man and the teen.

Minato didn't seem to mind the intrusion, even caressing the back of the dog's ears before making more space for her by getting up, but Rin frowned slightly.

"_The heat from your fur will—"_

Her former teacher silenced her with a cold finger to her lips at the same time the trained ninken growled at her. Kuma then placed her snout in the crook of Kakashi's neck, closing her eyes. Kakashi's labored breathing decreased to a regular ratio in an instant, some of the tension Rin had been able to feel in his shoulders and back visibly easing.

"_Clones would have taken a slower, but similar toll on his chakra, Rin. He summoned because he knew about this."_ 'This' being the apparent feeling of absolute safety the teen boy got when the big dog was close to him_. "I saw Kakashi sick once when he was much younger, only a few months old, I think, and getting Kuma to cuddle him up seemed to be a common practice of Sakumo-san's. Almost every time I've seen him sick since then, Kuma has been around somewhere."_

Rin still frowned slightly, because dogs were known to be warm, while this time her teammate needed at least a temperate weather. She knew, however, that trying to fight with an experienced ninja hound that was in a protective mood was not a smart thing to do. Instead, she sat on the floor next to her teacher, asking the man on different strategies they could use to make sure the students were never on their own, even during nighttime.

When they noticed, the hour used for dinner by the students was over. They got up and put on the armor they had taken off to be more comfortable. Minato looked at Kakashi, still dormant under half the canine, and doubted. Coming to a decision, he walked over and gave the boy a kiss on his uncovered lips. Kuma opened one of her eyes to study him, but did not bother moving.

The blond smiled at the ninken for the vote of trust_. "We're going to a meeting with the client, Kuma, I don't believe we'll be long. If he wakes up, don't let him follow us… not that I think he_ could_, but still. I'll give him food when we come back."_

Kuma nodded and once again closed her eyes. Rin, trying to make amends, gently placed Pakkun near the older dog, still making sure the tiny puppy was somehow touching the teen boy's skin.

The hound looked at her uneasily, but begrudgingly allowed her to give Kakashi another blue pill before both able ANBU slipped out the door and hurried to the Great Hall. Their arrival was received with alarmed glances of the few students that were still around.

While most of the teachers were gone by then, both McGonagall and Dumbledore stood and walked up to them. The witch nodded stiffly while the older man smiled calmly and motioned for them to follow him. Out of the corner of her eye, Rin saw Umbridge glowering at them, though she made no attempt to follow or stop them.

Instead, the pair of ninja followed the oldest wizard, being in turn tailed by the older witch. Minato's mouth twitched slightly at being treated as a war prisoner who had lost the will to fight. He glanced back at McGonagall and made sure Rin was close enough to him so he could protect her in case of grave danger.

"Blood-flavored lollipops" The old man whispered when they arrived in front of a gargoyle, and Shrike and Toad can't help but look at each other in something akin to wonder before following the man in the stairs suddenly made available for them.

While Dumbledore sat down behind his desk, and kindly told the other three to sit down, McGonagall and the shinobi refused to do so. The ANBU, however, did make it a point of taking off their masks. This was the client, after all, and clients hardly trusted people who didn't show their faces.

"My, Minerva, how right you were. These do seem rather young." Dumbledore did not seem frightened or angry, simply amused, though these was an almost undetectable edge to his voice that told Minato about the sadness he felt towards the culture of Konoha. "Well, whatever the case might be, I do believe you had some questions for me?"

As the Team Leader, it is Toad who steps forward, bowing while Shrike imitates him in the background. His voice abruptly becomes two or three tones lower, just like he has always noticed it does when giving important reports or treating with an unknown situation (oh, how Obito teased him—how Jiraiya-sensei teases him still). He asks about the language spell first, because he refuses to keep talking if he is not completely sure what language he is speaking.

The old man in fact laughs merrily at them for a few seconds before replying, explaining how the spell works as a sensor. "Magic is somewhat different to chakra, I'm sure you know that by now" He says, and the blond feels Rin waver with a sense of anger at the suggestion they might have taken such a long time to notice. "The spell activates when the sensor believes their chakra is trying to reach out for a wizard's magical core."

The next one is about the Ministry of Magic and the order. Dumbledore patiently explains the relations between the two, their different beliefs, how one must never be mentioned outside of a safe environment (namely nowhere, Rin concludes) and how the Ministry managed to infiltrate in the school by taking advantage of his lack of teachers for the Defense Against the Dark Arts course.

It is only then that Rin remembers a question Kakashi had asked while they were eating earlier that day, and she comes to stand next of Minato with a serious questions whose answer leaves her baffled, because none of the so-called unforgivable curses that everyone seems to fear sound all that threatening to her ears.

Minato resumes the questions with the missing Care of Magical Creatures teacher, and this answer does please him. "He is trying to obtain help from some strong allies. If he is to succeed, we believe the battle would lean in our favor." Is what the Headmaster tells them.

They learn that apparition has a similar effect to their Replacement Technique, but that the bases are not the same for both and that enables them to perform it with no problem while the students and most of the faculty cannot do their own.

The answers are easy to understand, the harder ones only needing a moment to process in their brains for them to understand. It is their instinct kicking in that allows them to swallow such a great deal of information in such a small place in time.

"We would like a map of the school. So far, we have found our way, but a map would make it much easier to plan our rounds and create emergency plans in case of an unseen attack." Minato requests as he is placing his porcelain mask back on.

Dumbledore's smile widens "I am afraid that would not be possible. The castle changes at will, and a map would not be able to follow in the way it is supposed to. Some of my most… ambitious students have made attempts to make one, and though there is one that works well enough, there are many blind spots that you, as guards, must be aware of."

Although Rin is not sure why the man is comparing his own abilities to those of his students (as if the Hokage compared himself to the rest of the village or a Chuunin teacher did the same to his academy disciples) she, along with her former sensei, swallow their disappointment at the news.

"We were also wondering if we could engrave a name on a stone. It doesn't have to be here, exactly, but maybe on the Forbidden Forest." Rin asks not a second afterwards.

"A name?"

Minato winced at having to explain. "One of our teammates died in battle a little over a month ago, and we would appreciate if let us—"

This time, Dumbledore did not bother trying to hide his sorrow, and Minato felt a sickly sensation prickling at the back of his neck at it. "Of course you may do so. I also have a request for you. It has come to my attention Mr. Potter has gotten a series of detentions for himself, and I would like that one of you is there with him at all times."

They nodded and Dumbledore got back on his feet. He grabbed a small vial that had been sitting on his desk, among many silver decorations the shinobi tried not to get distracted with, and walked over to them with calmness. He extended the glass over to the male.

The father-to-be took it and tried to make out the runes and pictures that adorned the label, to no avail. "Excuse me, what is this?"

The twinkle in the older male's eyes returned. "One of our medicines. Your friend will appreciate it, I'm sure."

When he didn't say anything after that, both shinobi bowed and left the room. When they arrived at their headquarters, dinner was already on the table, the letter Minato had left there nowhere to be seen. Balancing everything between the two of them, they made their way towards Kakashi's room.

The boy was awake, though Minato could see he looked every bit as anemic as he had done when he had first arrived at the village after his long mission. Pakkun was firmly settled on the thirteen-year-old's lap, and Kuma was rubbing her snout on the teen's stomach. He barely looked over when they approach.

They placed everything on the floor and prepared the food. Getting everything into the plates, Rin gave both hounds their own share before making sure Kakashi was comfortable enough grabbing her own plate while Minato sat next to the boy patiently asking him to open his mouth so he could eat, which the teen's fever-hazed mind had difficulty comprehending.

After a long while, everyone was done with their meal, and Minato gave a final glance to the odd vial Dumbledore had given him before carefully making Kakashi drink it. Even when Rin had gone to make her own rounds in the castle, Minato stayed by the boy's side until he fell into a deep slumber. Preparing mentally for the next day, the man asked both ninken to protect Kakashi.

Kuma snorted at him. As he retreated to his own room. _"The pup's been through a lot. This won't beat him."_

* * *

**Some dialogue has been taken directly from J.K. Rowling's **_**The Order of the Phoenix**_

**That awkward scene where Kakashi goes to Rin and then they both go to the Great Hall, it looks like that because I thought there was no break between classes and that Divination was the last class instead of DADA. So…**

**All of possible-Naruto names mean something along the words of whirlpool and storm. Except for Son. That one is for Son Goku (Or just Goku, in the non-japanese version), who was an inspiration for Kishimoto to write Naruto.**

**The ANBU cloak is going to be the one they use in the chapter where they look for Sasuke (of course, all in black or white), because… well, because ANBU cloaks make no sense! Have you seen them?! They're all closed and have no pockets! The sleeve design is**_** stupid**_**! So, yeah, the design is going to be the one that actually makes sense. **

**By the way, if anyone was wondering, Jiraiya's advice was something about Minato not letting the title "yellow flash" take over all aspects of his life (coughcoughspeedcoughcough).**

**Kuma means bear.**


End file.
